AstraZeneca Plc and Novartis AG have claimed in their recent statements that medicines that were going through late-stage development for treating hypertension and depression have failed during the course of studies, thereby initiating instant warnings related to predictions being made in context of earnings as well as sales.

The London-based AstraZeneca revealed that the two experimental drugs ended up showing extremely uninspiring results, which further resulted in a $381.5 million charge for the fourth quarter of the year. On the other hand, the Basel-based Swiss drugmaker Novartis claimed that it has terminated an ongoing trial of its heart drug, dubbed Tekturna, over safety concerns and the observations that were derived from the study might prove fairly disastrous for its sales.

Along with that, the biggest drugmaker of France, Sanofi, has also revealed that the Aubagio drug intended for treating multiple sclerosis has exactly not proved successful in beating an older treatment. The failure of patent protection on drugs can actually result in wiping out in excess of $21 billion in terms of sales in 2012, with no more than $4 billion expected out of new products.

As per expert speculations, the sales of AstraZeneca are expected to dip 8.4% during the next year, while the revenue of Novartis might witness a trivial gain of around 1.3% and 3% going for Sanofi.

While expressing his opinion and expectations regarding the future market trend for pharmaceutical firms, an analyst from the London-based UBS AG, Gbola Amusa said: “The bad results emerged at the same time, but Novartis has been at the top of the leader board for drug launches over the past decade, while AstraZeneca lies more toward the bottom”.

Recent reports have revealed that shares for AstraZeneca tumbled by 3.3% during London trading, marking the heaviest intraday fall over the last six weeks.