Actelion Ltd. CEO Says 120 Patients Died in Lung Drug Study

Actelion Ltd. (ATLN), the Swiss drugmaker, said 120 people died in a clinical trial of more than 700 patients involving its experimental medicine macitentan. The drug is “very unlikely” to show a statistically significant benefit in extending the lives of patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension, though the company is confident the trial will show patients are helped by the product, Chief Executive Officer Jean-Paul Clozel said on a conference call today. “Hopefully if there is an effect on morbidity, we should also see a trend on mortality,” Clozel said. “No drug in pulmonary hypertension has ever been able to show any benefit on morbidity-mortality in a double-blind randomized study.”