LONDON, Sept 27 (Reuters) - European stocks were dragged lower by drug test failures for Swiss firm Actelion and Britain's AstraZeneca on Monday, in thin trade ahead of fresh macroeconomic data later in the week.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares provisionally closed down 0.4 percent at 1,073.93 points, after ending 1.2 percent higher on Monday. Volumes on the index were at 58 percent of their 90-day average.
"We've seen a bit of a pause for breath today and it seems like the market is running out of a bit of steam," said Joshua Raymond, markets strategist at City Index.
Europe's largest biotech Actelion fell 8 percent after its haemorrhage drug clazosentan failed in a late-stage study, lessening the chances of it making it to market.
AstraZeneca lost 1.5 percent after the company's experimental prostate cancer pill zibotentan failed to improve survival in a late-stage clinical trial, dealing a fresh blow to the its oncology pipeline. (Reporting by Simon Jessop and Harpreet Bhal)