ASTRAZENECA SHARES FALL AFTER HEART DRUG TRIAL MISSES TARGET

AstraZeneca's share price declined by as much as 11% on Thursday morning following news that Wainua, a drug developed jointly with Ionis, failed to meet its primary objective in a clinical trial. The setback wiped more than £20 billion from the company's stock market value. Wainua is a gene silencer treatment designed to reduce deaths and recurring cardiovascular events in patients receiving standard heart disease care. The trial examined the drug's effectiveness in treating transthyretin-mediated amyloid cardiomyopathy, a condition that affects an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 people worldwide.

Sharon Barr, AstraZeneca's executive vice president of biopharmaceuticals research and development, stated that although the trial did not achieve its primary objective, the results provided scientific understanding of treatment approaches for patients with the condition. Wainua works by suppressing the production of abnormal proteins in the liver that can affect tissues elsewhere in the body. Market analysts characterised the trial failure as a significant disappointment for the company. One strategist noted that AstraZeneca had projected peak annual sales of approximately six billion US dollars from the drug and that the setback threatened the company's financial targets for 2030.

The decline in AstraZeneca's share price led the broader FTSE 100 Index into negative territory on Thursday. The trial failure came after US regulators delayed approval for another AstraZeneca cancer treatment, compounding recent setbacks for the pharmaceutical firm. The company stated it retained multiple drug programmes in development.