(Adds details)
ZURICH, April 27 (Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Novartis
said on Tuesday that a large British study of its
cholesterol-lowering drug Leqvio is now not expected to be
completed until 2026, a year later than expected, as COVID-19
infections made participant recruitment difficult.
In January 2020, Novartis struck a deal with the National
Health Service to use its data to find patients at risk of heart
disease for whom conventional treatment had failed. They are due
to get Leqvio, which targets "bad cholesterol" that can cause
heart attacks and strokes. (https://reut.rs/3xmxxtf)
Novartis, which said rising UK vaccinations are now helping
the study to again accelerate recruitment, hopes to gather data
about the efficacy of Leqvio, which it bought two years ago for
nearly $10 billion and which it expects will eventually reach
billions of dollars in annual sales.
Britain, meanwhile, is seeking to compile safety and
efficacy data as it seeks to manage heart disease, one of the
country's leading killers. It sees the study with Novartis and
Oxford University as a precursor to other, similar trials.
"With the impact of COVID in the UK, recruitment has been
challenging," said John Tsai, Novartis's head of drug
development, adding that recruitment is now "starting to get
back on track".
Tsai made the delay public in a call with analysts after
Novartis reported first-quarter results that missed
expectations, with the pandemic weighing on drug sales as people
skipped going to the doctor for other illnesses.
As COVID-19 infections have surged, waned and then surged
again, they have disrupted other companies' trials, too,
including Roche's study of an experimental pill against
the coronavirus. Roche was forced to find another location after
rising vaccinations in Britain suddenly left it with too few
patients there.
(Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Michael Shields)