Pieris stock deflates as AstraZeneca stops trials of asthma drug in response to toxicology signal

AstraZeneca has pulled the plug on clinical trials of its asthma candidate elarekibep after seeing data from a toxicology study. Pieris Pharmaceuticals, which licensed the inhaled IL-4 receptor alpha inhibitor to AstraZeneca, attributed the decision to “lung findings” from a 13-week nonclinical assessment.