With Bayer in need of a growth driver, anticoagulant’s Phase III miss dims prospects

The failure of Bayer’s asundexian in a Phase III study severely diminishes the prospects for an anticoagulant that the pharma had hoped would be a multi-billion-dollar growth driver to counter lost revenues from Xarelto as that drug loses patent protection in the coming years.

Shares of Bayer AG (Xetra:BAYN) sank 18% on Monday, sending the pharma’s market cap down more than $7 billion after it said it would stop the Phase III OCEANIC-AF study testing small molecule Factor XIa inhibitor asundexian in patients with atrial fibrillation at risk for stroke. An IDMC recommended that the study be stopped for lack of efficacy, based on “ongoing surveillance which showed an inferior efficacy of asundexian versus the control arm” of patients receiving Eliquis apixaban...