Fujifilm Holdings has said it has stopped development of its anti-viral drug Avigan for treating COVID-19, saying it was unable to confirm its effectiveness in a clinical trial.
Avigan, initially developed as a drug for influenza, emerged as a potential treatment for the coronavirus during the early stages of the pandemic.
The Japanese camera and medical equipment-maker applied for government approval in October 2020. But a panel of experts at the health ministry held off on authorization, saying it was hard to confirm its effectiveness with the available data at that time.
The company subsequently began a new clinical trial in 2021, aiming to test the drug on 316 patients, but ended up testing on only 84 people before terminating the trial this year, it said Friday.
Fujifilm said it will withdraw from the government's approval process after finding no significant results from the analysis of the clinical data.
The decision comes at a time where those who contract the currently widespread omicron variant of the virus are less likely to develop severe symptoms and more people have become vaccinated, Fujifilm said.
So far, Japan has approved several drugs as treatment for COVID-19, including molnupiravir, developed by Merck & Co., and Gilead Sciences Inc.'s remdesivir. Both companies are based in the United States.
Then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in May 2020 instructed the health ministry to approve Avigan within the month if its effectiveness was confirmed.