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Shares of Germany's chemical corporation Bayer tumbled to their lowest level in a decade after the company halted a late-stage trial of a new blood-thinning drug that failed to prove its efficacy.

The German company said its study studying the effect of asundexian on the treatment of atrial fibrillation showed "lower efficacy" than the control drug.

Today, Bayer's shares collapsed by more than 18% at 13:30 BGN. This is the biggest one-day drop in Bayer's shares and cost the company about 2008.7 billion euros ($6.8 billion) of its market value.

Bayer reports billions of euros in losses in third quarter

The company said it had stopped testing of asundexian on the recommendation of an independent commission overseeing the study. Bayer will further analyze the data to understand the "outcome" of the study and publish it. The company added that it will continue to investigate the drug in a separate trial for stroke patients.

Analysts at British bank Barclays said they saw the trial failure as a "complete surprise".

Over the weekend, Bayer lost a key U.S. process related to its weed control herbicide Roundup, which it acquired when it bought U.S. company Monsanto in 2018.

The failure compounded the challenges facing Bayer CEO Bill Anderson, who recently said the conglomerate's performance was "unacceptable" amid efforts to recover after the Monsanto deal.

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