First marimastat data disappoints

OXFORD - British Biotech plc (LSE:BBG, BBIOY) may have introduced a new CEO and a new strategy in the past six months, but it is still not out of the woods. On Monday the company announced that its marimastat oral matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor had failed its first test - study 128 - a monotherapy trial in pancreatic cancer.

The study missed the primary end point of a 16 percent reduction in mortality of patients receiving either 10 or 25 mg of the compound twice daily versus Eli Lilly and Co.'s Gemzar gemcitabine...