Pfizer fungal infection therapy fails trial goal

Sept 30 (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc said Friday that its combination therapy to treat invasive aspergillosis, a dangerous systemic fungal infection, failed to meet the main goal of a late-stage trial.

The company was testing its antifungal treatment Vfend in combination with Eraxis in patients suffering with invasive aspergillosis, a fungal infection that can develop as a complication in patients with compromised immune systems.

The combination therapy did show a lower all-cause mortality rate -- or death for any reason -- at six weeks compared with treatment with Vfend alone, but it failed to show a statistically significant result.

The safety and tolerability of the combination of Vfend and Eraxis in this study was similar to that of Vfend by itself.

A total of 454 patients from 24 countries were enrolled in the trial. The main goal of the trial was to compare all-cause mortality at six weeks. (Reporting by Anand Basu in New York, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)