Bristol-Myers Squibb said Thursday that it was discontinuing development of a hepatitis C drug that it had acquired in a $2.5 billion deal, after nine patients in a clinical trial had to be hospitalized and one of them died. The company suspended testing of the drug on Aug. 1, after one patient in a midstage clinical trial experienced heart failure. At that time, however, there was still some question of whether the drug, known as BMS-986094, had caused the problem. But Thursday evening, the company said that initial patient had died and that eight other patients also had to be hospitalized. Two of them remained hospitalized.
