Lilly depression drug fails late-stage trial

Thu Dec 5, 2013 8:17am EST

Dec 5 (Reuters) - Eli Lilly and Co on Thursday said its experimental drug to treat major depression failed to meet it primary goal in three late-stage trials and the drugmaker will not seek approval of the medicine for that condition.

The drug edivoxetine, a member of a family of medicines called norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, was tested in combination with a member of a widely used class of depression treatments called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in each of the three trials.

But after eight weeks of treatment, the combination of drugs that included edivoxetine did not prove superior to the SSRIs alone, thereby failing the main goal of the study.

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