Leaders in Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence (LPBI) Group

Failed pain relief drug candidate clinical trial

Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Curator

LPBI

No target organ was identified during toxicology studies and few adverse clinical findings were observed at the highest dose tested. For the single ascending dose part [of the clinical trial], a starting dose of 0.25 mg was judged to be safe for a first-in-human administration.[8]

In July 2015 Biotrial, a contract research organization, began testing the drug in a human phase one clinical trial for the manufacturer. The study was approved by French regulatory authority, the Agence Nationale de Sécurité du Médicament (ANSM), on June 26, 2015, and by the Brest regional ethics committee on July 3, 2015.^[20] The trial commenced on July 9, 2015,^[21] in the city of Rennes, and recruited 128 healthy volunteers, both men and women aged 18 to 55. According to French authorities, the study employed a three-stage design with 90 of the volunteers having received the drug during the first two stages of the trial, with no serious adverse events being reported .^[17][20] Participants of the study were to receive €1,900 and, in turn, asked to stay at Biotrial’s facility for two weeks during which time they would take the drug for ten days and undergo tests.^[22]

In the third stage of the trial evaluating multiple doses, six male volunteers received doses by mouth, starting on 7 January 2016. The first volunteer was hospitalized at theRennes University Hospital on January 10, became brain dead,^{[17][23][24][25]} and died on January 17.^[26] The other five men in the same dosage group were also hospitalized, in the period of January 10 through January 13^[27] four of them suffering injuries including deep hemorrhagic and necrotic lesions seen on brain MRI.^[7] The six men who were hospitalised were the group which received the highest dose.^[26] A neurologist at the University of Rennes Hospital Center, Professor Pierre-Gilles Edan, stated in a press conference with the French Minister for Health, that 3 of the 4 men who were displaying neurological symptoms “already have a severe enough clinical picture to fear that even in the best situation there will be an irreversible handicap” and were being given corticosteroids to control the inflammation.^[27] The sixth man from the group was not showing adverse effects but had been hospitalized for observation.^[25][28][29] Biotrial stopped the experiment on January 11, 2016.^[4]

The French health minister has stated the drug acted on natural receptors found in the body known as endocannibinoids, which regulate mood and appetite. It did not contain cannabis or anything derived from it, as was originally reported. All six trial participants were administered the doses simultaneously.

The trial was being performed at Biotrial, a French-based firm that was formed in 1989 and has conducted thousands of trials. A message on the company’s website stated that they are working with health authorities to understand the cause of the accident, while extending thoughts to the patients and their families. Bial has disclosed the drug was a FAAH (fatty acid amide hydrolase) inhibitor, which is an enzyme produced in the brain and elsewhere that breaks down neurotransmitters called endocannabinoids. Two scientists from the Nottingham Medical School who have worked with FAAH tried over the weekend to try and identify the drug by examining a list of drugs Bial currently has in its pipeline. They believe the culprit is one identified by the codename BIA 10-2474.

While safety issues like this are rare, they are not unheard of. In 2006, a clinical trial in London left six men ill. All were taking part in a study testing a drug designed to fight auto-immune disease and leukemia. Within hours of taking the drug TGN1412, all experienced a serious reaction, were admitted to intensive care, and had to be treated for organ failure.

The Duff Report, written in response to the TGN1412 trial, noted the medicine should have been tested in one person at a time. It also helped to put additional safety measures in place. The Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) now requires committees to look at pre-clinical data to determine the proper initial dose, and rules are in place to stop the trial if unintended reactions occur.

Other pharmaceutical companies, including Merck, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofiand Vernalis, have previously taken other FAAH inhibitors into clinical trials without experiencing such adverse events (e.g. respectively, MK-4409,^[35][36] PF-04457845,JNJ-42165279,^[37] SSR411298 and V158866.^[38][39] Related enzyme inhibitor compounds such as URB-597 and LY-2183240 have been sold illicitly as designer drugs,^[40][41] all without reports of this type of toxicity emerging, so the mechanism of the toxicity observed with BIA 10-2474 remains poorly understood.

Clinical Trial Tragedy, France, Jan 2016, PHASE 1 | Categories: Uncategorized | URL:http://wp.me/p38LX5-4ut