The announcement means the company will be pulling the plug on the CardinALS trial after its amyotrophic lateral sclerosis drug failed to halt disease progression.

But utreloxastat had little effect on ALS in the phase 2 trial. PTC powered the study to show if twice daily oral dosing of utreloxastat could achieve a two-point difference on ALSFRS, an instrument for evaluating the functional status of ALS patients. The drug candidate fell short of that bar.

PTC Therapeutics' Phase II trial for utreloxastat in ALS failed to meet its primary endpoint, showing no significant improvement in slowing disease progression. This follows a tough year for ALS drug development,