(Reuters) -aTyr Pharma said on Monday its experimental drug had failed to meet the main goal in a late-stage study testing it in patients with a type of lung disease known as pulmonary sarcoidosis, a disease impacting the lungs and lymph nodes.

The late-stage trial, which enrolled 268 patients, aimed to show a bigger cut in daily steroid use after 48 weeks versus a placebo.

Patients on the higher 5 mg/kg dose of the drug reduced steroids to an average of 2.79 mg/kg a day, compared with 3.52 mg/kg on placebo, a difference that was not statistically significant.

The company said the drug’s safety profile was consistent with earlier studies.

The company’s shares were halted in premarket trading.

(Reporting by Padmanabhan Ananthan in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)

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