AstraZeneca is under pressure after the company withdrew regulatory submissions for its experimental drug Zactima.
Astra - which reports results tomorrow - had proposed a combination of chemotherapy and Zactima as a treatment for lung cancer, and the drug was believed to be one of the highlights of its product pipeline.
But now it appears that clinical analysis shows there is no survival advantage when Zactima (also called vandetanib) was added to chemotherapy.
Astra's shares have dropped 31p to £27.99 on the news. Meanwhile rival GlaxoSmithKline is up 2p to 1258.5p ahead of its results, which are due around lunchtime.
