Shire drug for premature babies with eye condition misses endpoint

Ireland-headquartered Shire's (LSE: SHPL) SHP607 has failed in a Phase II study to meet the primary endpoint of reducing the severity of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a rare eye condition.

The study of 121 extremely premature infants showed no impact on reducing ROP’s severity, though Shire notes that the trial demonstrated clinically relevant effects in other conditions which have lifelong negative implications for normal development.

These were related to the development of severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), a chronic lung disease, and severe intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), a type of brain injury.