Fresenius halts pilot rollout of Affymax's Omontys
The Fresenius Medical Care unit of Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA (Xetra:FRE; NYSE:FSNUY) said it halted the rollout of a pilot program to assess anemia drug Omontys peginesatide from Affymax Inc. (NASDAQ:AFFY) in its dialysis centers. The news sent shares of Affymax down as much as $5.65 (33%) on Thursday, but the company rebounded to end the day off $1.17 to $15.74.
Fresenius began adopting Omontys into its U.S. dialysis centers under a July 2012 supply agreement with Affymax and partner Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (Tokyo:4502) as part of the pilot program. Under the deal, Takeda agreed to supply Omontys to Fresenius through the end of April 2013. Fresenius said it now has enough experience with Omontys to analyze the drug's efficacy and safety profile, and expects to finish the analysis in the next week or two. ...