FibroGen’s Roxadustat On The Rocks After Phase III Myelodysplastic Syndrome Failure

The failure of FibroGen, Inc.’s Phase III MATTERHORN trial of roxadustat in anemia among patients with transfusion-dependent lower-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) likely seals the drug’s fate in the US market, thereby shifting focus to pamrevlumab, FibroGen’s Phase III candidate for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). But IPF has been a challenging area of development.

FibroGen said 5 May that MATTERHORN, which enrolled 140 patients, did not met its primary endpoint measuring the proportion of patients achieving red blood cell transfusion independence in the first 28 weeks of the study. In the roxadustat arm, 47.5% of patients achieved transfusion independence, compared with 33