Lilly Halts Cholesterol Drug, Losing a Potential Blockbuster
- Company to take charge of 5 cents a share in fourth quarter
- Shares of Merck, which has similar medication, also drop
Eli Lilly Halts Heart Drug Development After Trials
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Eli Lilly & Co. said it will stop development of evacetrapib, an experimental cholesterol drug with blockbuster potential, because it failed to benefit patients with heart disease.
Lilly shares fell 7.1 percent to $80.05 at 9:52 a.m. in New York. The drug’s failure builds on a series of disappointments for medications that inhibit a molecule known as CETP, which results in higher levels of HDL. Also called good cholesterol, HDL is known to ferry fatty lipids out of the arteries. Merck & Co., which is still developing a CETP inhibitor, slid 1.6 percent to $50.11.