Novartis still bullish on asthma program despite pair of Phase III misses

Novartis is looking ahead to a second set of late-stage readouts next quarter for fevipiprant to treat asthma, despite the candidate’s failure to meet the primary endpoint in two Phase III studies.

Along with its 3Q19 earnings Tuesday, Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS; SIX:NOVN) revealed that fevipiprant (QAW039) failed to improve forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) in either of the ZEAL 1 or ZEAL 2 trials. Those trials studied the PTGDR2 inhibitor in patients with moderate disease. ...