SkyePharma falls as Abbott gets shot of asthma drug

Drugmaker SkyePharma today saw its shares plunge 5% after pharmaceuticals giant Abbott Laboratories ended the deal to sell its asthma drug Flutiform in America.

Abbott handed back control of the attempt to get Flutiform approved by the US watchdog the Food and Drug Administration after the US medicine watchdog first rejected the drug in January.

When the FDA gave more details for its rejection in June, it imposed tough new demands on the drug's application. SkyePharma's chief executive Ken Cunningham said Abbott's decision to cut ties with Flutiform had resulted from those requests.

"Given the delay in obtaining approval for Flutiform, we are not surprised that Abbott has decided to terminate its interest," he said.

Cunningham added that the firm had not given up on getting the drug to market in the US but was investigating "whether there is a viable way forward".

Flutiform is still being tested by European regulators and SkyePharma was keen to point out that Europe "remains a very big market for inhaled combination products for asthma".

But the City was not impressed. The firm's shares, which have more than halved since Flutiform was rejected by the FDA at the start of the year, today fell 5% — or 2p — to 27.8p.