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Swiss pharmaceutical company Actelion AG (ATLN.VX) Monday said experimental drug clazosentan missed the primary goal of a key study, dealing a major blow to the company's efforts to reduce its dependence on flagship drug Tracleer.

Actelion, based in Allschwil, Switzerland said that initial results of a study dubbed CONSCIOUS-2, showed that clazosentan didn't sufficiently reduce the risk of severe complications or death in patients suffering from bleeding in the brain after a stroke.

"These are, of course, disappointing results," said Jean-Paul Clozel, chief executive of Actelion, in a statement.

This deals a blow to the company, which had hoped that sales from clazosentan would reduce its dependence from Tracleer--it's flagship drug, which generates around 90% of its revenue.

Actelion shares slumped on the news, and by 0810 GMT were down 7.5% to CHF40.21. The shares have already lost around 27% in value this year as the company has also suffered a severe setback as its main drug, Tracleer, failed to cut mortality rates in patients suffering from fatal lung disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Actelion had hoped that approval for wider use of Tracleer could double sales of the drug, which generates around 1.5 billion Swiss francs ($1.52 billion) in sales a year.

The steep fall in the share price came even though many analysts had given the clazosentan project a less-than 50% chance of success.

"It's always bad for a biotechnology company if they suffer a pipeline setback, even if the market had perceived it as a high-risk project," said analyst at Zuercher Kantonalbank analyst Sybille Bischofsberger, who has a market-weight rating on the stock.

Actelion, which is also examining the potential of clazosentan in a different group of patients--in a study dubbed CONSCIOUS-3--will discuss how to proceed with this other trial with researchers. It plans to offer an update on the clazosentan development program Oct. 21, when it will also release third-quarter earnings.

-By Anita Greil, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone] ; [e-mail]