Update: Woodford backs AstraZeneca as 'simply too cheap' despite £177m hit

Largest daily share price fall

Neil Woodford has defended his £1.1bn holdings in pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, after shares dropped almost 16% yesterday following a major setback in one of its drug trials.

The share price in the FTSE 100 stock dropped 15.9% to £43.96 as it emerged its study into a new lung cancer drug, known as Mystic, which the firm had hoped would be adopted in preference to chemotherapy, had unfortunately not reached the expected "endpoints" during trial, according to the Financial Times. The fall is the worst daily share price drop for the firm since its predecessor Zeneca listed in 1993 and is likely to cause concern about whether it will need to cut its dividend. Rathbones' Stick: Why we expect an uptick in pharma revenues The stock is the number one holding in...