Sometimes companies have to roll the dice. Last September, the Food and Drug Administration turned down Gilead Sciences'
But sometimes snake eyes come up: The European Union's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) yesterday recommended against approving aztreonam lysine.
The drug is an inhaled antibiotic with the same active ingredient as Elan's
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Gilead has already started the trial to satisfy the FDA, which will hopefully be all the drugmaker needs to gain approval in Europe as well.
The drugmaker has been diversifying away from its core HIV franchise and into other areas like cystic fibrosis and heart drugs with its acquisition of CV Therapeutics