AstraZeneca ends Certriad development with Abbott; Gilead drops ambrisentan in IPF

23 December 2010

Anglo-Swedish drug major AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) last evening notified its partner Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) that it will discontinue the development of Certriad (rosuvastatin calcium and fenofibric acid), which was being investigated for the treatment of mixed dyslipidemia. This means the co-development and license agreement with Abbott will end on 22 January 22, 2011.

Rosuvastatin is the active ingredient of AstraZeneca’s blockbuster cholesterol lowerer Crestor, and fenofibric acid is marketed by Abbott as TriLipix.

A Complete Response Letter (CRL) for the Certriad New Drug Application, which had been filed June 2009, was received from the US Food and Drug Administration earlier this year, when it already sent out warning signals about the future of the combination product that had been touted as achieving peak sales of around $500 million (The Pharma Letter March 31).

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