Troubled drug company British Biotech, based in Cowley, Oxford, says its key cancer drug has failed early tests.

The former flagship of the British biotech industry said marimastat had failed to meet one of its primary targets in the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer.

In December the company halted trials on the drug's use for ovarian cancer. The new results came in tests pitching it against the established chemotherapy treatment gemcitabine.

British Biotech, which hit the headlines last year with the controversial sacking of its clinical research head Dr Andrew Millar, set a target for the mortality rate among marimastat patients to be 16 per cent lower than that of gemcitabine. But in fact it was the same at high doses and in lower doses performed worse than its rival.

Chief executive Elliott Goldstein stressed pancreatic cancer was only one of ten possible uses for marimastat.

He said: "Advanced pancreatic cancer is a very aggressive disease to test a drug on. About 80 per cent of patients or a little more died within a year. The secondary analysis suggests the drug may be showing some activity at least at its highest dose.

"The question is, to what extent can we extrapolate from these tests to form a view on other types of cancer," he added. There were "no plans to abandon anything" on the marimastat project, he said. The group reported pre-tax losses for the three months to January 31 of £8.3m, compared with £11m for the same period last year. Turnover was halved from £102,000 to £52,000.

British Biotech put the improvement in losses down to a cost-cutting drive which included rationalising its commercial activities as well as trimming its research budget.

Story date: Tuesday 16 February

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