AstraZeneca Weighs Continuation of Psoriasis Drug

AstraZeneca is mulling whether to independently pursue the developmental psoriasis drug brodalumab after its partner Amgen’s withdrawal from the project in May, Pascal Soriot, chief executive officer of the UK drugmaker, told the news agency Bloomberg.
Amgen terminated the development deal after patients showed suicidal tendencies.
Soriot said AstraZeneca, which began its collaboration with Amgen three years ago, wants to take more time to look at the data and engage with regulators.
The UK company initially paid the biotech firm $50 million and agreed to fund 65% of the cost of the developing of five new drugs from 2012 to 2014. After that, the partners planned to split costs and profits.
Even with the potential loss of brodalumab, expected to have peak sales of $1.5 billion, AstraZeneca can still reach its target of $45 billion in annual sales by 2023, Soriot told the news agency.
The drug treats the skin disease and related forms of arthritis.