A screen displays the share price for pharmaceutical maker AbbVie on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange July 18, 2014. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

(Reuters) - AbbVie Inc said on Friday it has halted enrollment of patients in all ongoing studies testing its brain cancer treatment after the drug failed to meet the main goal in a late-stage trial.

The company’s shares fell 1.8 percent to $78.10 before the bell.

An independent data monitoring committee recommended the study be stopped due to “lack of survival benefit” for patients receiving the treatment Depatux-M when compared with a placebo, AbbVie said.

Depatux-M, when added to the standard regimen of radiation and temozolomide, failed to meet the main goal of achieving overall survival in newly diagnosed patients when compared to patients given a placebo along with radiation and temozolomide.

The trial has been testing the drug to treat an aggressive form of brain cancer known as glioblastoma.

About 17,760 people are estimated to die from brain and spinal cord tumors in the United States, in 2019, according to the American Cancer Society.