(Reuters) – AstraZeneca said on Wednesday its asthma drug Fasenra failed to control the rate of flare-ups in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in a late-stage study, in a setback to efforts to help tackle a severe lung disease.
The drugmaker said Fasenra did not meet the primary endpoint in COPD patients compared with placebo, and added that it would analyze the full study data to better understand the results.
Fasenra is AstraZeneca’s second-best selling drug from its respiratory and immunology portfolio. It brought in $920 million in sales in the first half of 2025, up 18% from a year earlier.
“COPD, which remains a leading cause of death worldwide, is a complex, heterogeneous disease and we continue to advance other promising approaches in our pipeline to address the unmet needs of patients,” said AstraZeneca executive Sharon Barr.
The company’s other treatments for COPD, also known as “smoker’s lung”, include its triple-combination inhaler Breztri Aerosphere, and the experimental tozorakimab.
Patients enrolled in the Fasenra trial were current or former smokers, receiving existing treatments for their condition, and had a history of at least two flare-ups in the previous year.
Separately, the drugmaker announced that its rare disease drug Saphnelo successfully met the primary endpoint in a late-stage trial by significantly reducing activity in systemic lupus erythematosus, a chronic autoimmune condition.
(Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
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