Merck hit with Phase III failure for Parkinson's drug
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
Merck & Co is discontinuing development of its adenosine A2a receptor antagonist, preladenant, for Parkinson's disease (PD) after an initial review of data from three separate Phase III trials failed to provide evidence of efficacy for the drug versus placebo.
You may also be interested in...
Corvus Aims To Master Adenosine Mechanisms For PD-1/L1 Failures
Emerging Company Profile: CEO Richard Miller, who co-founded Idec and Pharmacyclics, explains Corvus's approach of building a pipeline around an emerging target in cancer immunity that may be complementary to checkpoint inhibitors and other therapies.
Istradefylline Further Down But Still Not Quite Out In Parkinson’s?
Despite the long and troubled history of the molecule, Kyowa Hakko Kirin has persisted with the development of istradefylline for Parkinson's disease, but a new Phase III failure might be the last straw for the A2a antagonist.
Topotarget reconfirms mid-2013 US NDA for belinostat as it looks to Q3 milestone
Danish firm Topotarget said it was 'very confident' that it will be able to raise its first milestone from partner, Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, by the third quarter as it reported that final top-line data confirm that the primary endpoint was met in the Phase II BELIEF trial investigating an intravenous formulation of the histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, belinostat, for peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL).