The reaction in AstraZeneca’s share price to the news of a poor outcome for the latest trial for the company’s Brilinta heart drug is an instructive one. The shares were off by 2 or 3 per cent in early trading, on what is the second piece of bad news for Brilinta, supposedly one of the company’s standout drugs, this year. They ended off only 16p at £50.25 as analysts concluded it wasn’t too bad, after all.
Brilinta failed to do better than alternative treatments in trials for patients with peripheral artery disease. AstraZeneca has had to row back on earlier forecasts that the drug would notch up sales of $3.5 billion by 2023. This year Brilinta will achieve sales of $1 billion. The market still