FDA staff flags several uncertainties with Veru's COVID-19 drug

(Reuters) - U.S. Food and Drug Administration staff said on Monday Veru Inc's experimental drug for COVID-19 met the main goal of reducing the death rate in a late-stage trial, but flagged a number of uncertainties with the data.

Staff reviewers said the data did not help in clearly identifying a relevant patient population and remained unclear about the mortality rate in the placebo group.

Veru has applied for emergency use authorization for its drug, sabizabulin, as a treatment for hospitalized moderate-to-severe COVID patients at high risk of developing an acute respiratory distress syndrome.

The application is based on data from a study involving 210 patients that showed sabizabulin led to a 55.2% reduction in death rates versus placebo.

A panel of FDA's outside experts is scheduled to discuss approval of the drug later this week.

Shares of Veru rose 16.6% in early trading.

(Reporting by Bhanvi Satija and Raghav Mahobe in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)