It seemed like such a great marketing strategy for Teva Pharmaceutical
Teva announced Monday that a double dose of its multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone didn't work any better than the currently available dose. The company only presented top-line results of the trial -- dubbed Forte -- but Teva isn't likely to get anything useful from the full results.
Post-marketing trials to expand Copaxone's market haven't exactly been Teva's forte, although it did have some success in a trial supporting the use of the drug early in the disease progression.
Still, I'm not sure the bad news warranted the more than 8% hit that Teva's stock took Monday. The results shouldn't change how well Copaxone competes against other multiple sclerosis drugs like Biogen Idec's
Also, Teva isn't sitting back and blindly waiting for newcomers like Elan's
While disappointing, the Forte results shouldn't be a major issue for Teva. Perhaps the biggest take-home message for investors is that getting a drug on the market doesn't eliminate the clinical trial risks.
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