Novartis discontinues ASA404 after another miss

Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS; SIX:NOVN) discontinued development of ASA404 after ASA404 plus Taxotere docetaxel as second-line therapy missed the primary endpoint of significantly improving overall survival vs. placebo plus Taxotere in the Phase III ATTRACT-2 trial to treat locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). As a result, Novartis said it will incur a charge of $120 million in 4Q10. The double-blind, international trial enrolled 900 patients with stage IIIb/IV NSCLC. ...