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Xigris hits; Tifacogin misses

November 21, 2001 8:00 AM UTC

Eli Lilly (LLY) announced that the FDA granted marketing approval for its Xigris drotrecogin alfa to treat adult patients with sepsis who have an exceptionally high risk of death. In contrast to the news out of LLY, Chiron (CHIR) said its tifacogin did not meet the primary endpoint of reducing 28-day all-cause mortality in its 2,000-patient double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase III OPTIMIST sepsis trial.

CHIR said it would make development decisions regarding the compound after a full review of the data. The company said there were no safety issues with tifacogin in the trial. Tifacogin is being developed in partnership with Pharmacia (PHA) and is a recombinant form of tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) that inhibits a key step in blood coagulation, which leads to clot formation. ...