Targeted failure of the week. Post No 102-103. Lixisenatide and Yervoy

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s skin cancer treatment Yervoy missed a main goal of achieving a significant improvement in overall survival compared to a fake drug when tested in patients with an advanced form of prostate cancer, the drugmaker said Thursday.

Sanofi has pulled back the application to market its diabetes drug lixisenatide in the USA, while it waits to collect all data from an ongoing data from a cardiovascular outcomes trial.

The French drugmaker said it would refile the drug in 2015, following completion of the 6,000-patient ELIXA CV study, to provide the US Food and Drug Administration with a complete set of data to evaluate in one go.