Bayer lays plan for US expansion even after blood thinner drug setback

Independent venture: German multinational pharma and biotechnology company Bayer will keep at its expansion plans in the United States even after the November update on its blood thinner candidate.

The announcement comes after the blood thinner drug could not demonstrate superiority over a competing medicine, Bayer’s pharmaceuticals head Stefan Oelrich said.

The drugmaker’s experimental anticoagulant asundexian could still prove to be a blockbuster if its second trial for stroke prevention reads out positively, Oelrich told Reuters.

On the sidelines of the JPMorgan health conference in San Francisco, he said there is also a strong opportunity in the US for Bayer's cardiovascular and menopause symptom relief treatments.

The treatments also include the experimental elinzanetant, which the company claims eased hot flashes and improved sleep in late-stage trials.

"When you look at any of the opportunities that we're talking about (in those areas), typically the reward for innovation in the US is superior to the one in Europe," he said.

Bayer in late November had announced that asundexian was shown to be inferior to Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer's established Eliquis for preventing strokes in high-risk patients part-way into a late-stage trial called OCEANIC-AF.

The company had said it started a trial called OCEANIC-AFINA to test the experimental blood thinner in patients with a trial fibrillation who are ineligible for oral anticoagulant treatment because of increased bleeding risk.

The company’s pharma head Oelrich said Bayer still plans to sell the drugs it is developing in the country on its own, instead of partnering with US companies as it did in the past.

The drugmaker intends to move away from relying on partners in the US, with a plan to invest $1 billion on drug research and development in the country in 2023, President of Bayer US Sebastian Guth told Reuters last March.

Oelrich did not comment on whether Bayer would revise its 5 billion euro forecast for asundexian after the trial setback.

(With Reuters Inputs)