Bristol-Myers Squibb Co and its partner Pfizer Inc said Tuesday that their apixaban anticoagulant didn’t comply with the requirements regarding its main objective.

Moreover, the global pharmaceutical companies said they withdrew their intention to request the Food and Drug Administration approval in order to sell the medicine in the coming year. 

However, the drug makers and analysts in the pharmaceutical industry stated that the drug, which is said to prevent blood clots in the veins, could still provide evidence for its efficiency in other experiments, Reuters reported.

As maintained by Michael Castor, a portfolio manager with health-care fund Sio Capital Management, this is “not good news, but not a death knell either." He added that the medicine was still being investigated, but, in spite of failing to fulfill its main objective, it did prove to avoid the clumps that result from coagulation of the blood, to some extent.

In a late-stage study that has been carried out, the blood cloth preventer showed effectiveness similar to other drug. Called Enoxaparin, the medicine also prevents blood clots from forming, by blocking the action of 2 of the 12 proteins found in blood.

But some people disagree. For instance, analyst Steve Scala said that "apixaban's dose may be insufficient to stop clotting and therefore resulted in less bleeding although our consultants continue to believe that it is a viable drug."

Meanwhile, Bristol-Myers Squibb and PDL BioPharma, Inc. announced an agreement for the global development and commercialization of a new treatment for multiple myeloma.