Content about Clinical trial

SAN DIEGO — Amylin Pharmaceuticals and Takeda Pharmaceutical have halted development of a treatment for obesity in mid-stage clinical trials, the two companies said.

The companies said the decision to discontinue development of a therapy that combines pramlintide and metreleptin was based on "a commercial reassessment of the pramlintide/metreleptin program … [that] took into account a revised development plan, as well as evolving dynamics within he obesity therapeutic area."

INDIANAPOLIS — Eli Lilly has launched its physician payment registry, a website that enables visitors to search payments to individual U.S.-based physicians and the institutions or research organizations that receive payments on behalf of a physician.

The drug maker said that its website, which is in line with its corporate integrity agreement with the U.S. government, aims to show how the company works with U.S. physicians and compensates them for their services and how these collaborations benefit patient care.

SYDNEY — Australian drug maker QRxPharma is seeking approval for a drug that combines two painkillers in one pill, the company said Monday.

QRxPharma announced that it had filed a regulatory approval application with the Food and Drug Administration for MoxDuo IR (morphine and oxycodone). The drug is designed to release both drugs into the body immediately.

HERZLIYA, Israel — The Food and Drug Administration has given orphan drug designation to an investigational treatment for multiple myeloma, a blood cell cancer, that soon will enter mid-stage development.

XTL announced that the FDA had granted the designation to its recombinant human erythropoietin, or rHuEPO drug, for which the company soon will start phase-2 clinical trials.

The FDA gives orphan drug designation to treatments for diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 people in the United States per year.

BRISBANE, Calif. — An investigational drug made by InterMune improved breathing in patients with a rare and fatal lung disease, according to results of a late-stage clinical trial published online in The Lancet last week.

InterMune is investigating the drug pirfenidone as a treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which affects more than 200,000 patients in the European Union and the United States combined. Only 20% of patients with IPF survive after five years.

HAYWARD, Calif. — The branded-drug division of Impax Labs plans to conduct early-stage clinical studies of an investigational drug for restless leg syndrome, the company said Tuesday.

Impax Pharmaceuticals, as the division is known, said it filed an investigational new drug application with the Food and Drug Administration for IPX159 and started a phase-1 study.

NEW YORK — A U.S. drug maker and its Japanese partner have started a late-stage clinical trial of a drug for treating elevated phosphate levels in the body, the two announced Monday.

Keryx Biopharmaceuticals and Torii Pharmaceutical, the pharmaceuticals subsidiary of Japan Tobacco, started a phase-3 trial of Zerenex (ferric citrate) in Japan for patients with hyperphosphatemia. The drug also is in phase-3 trials in the United States as a treatment for hyperphosphatemia in patients with end-stage kidney disease on dialysis.

HAYWARD, Calif. — An investigational drug for Parkinson’s disease was safe and effective, according to results of a late-stage clinical trial scheduled for presentation next week.

Impax Pharmaceuticals, the branded products division of Impax Labs, said it would present data from a phase-3 trial of extended-release IPX066 (carbidopa-levodopa) at the American Academy of Neurology Conference’s annual meeting in Hawaii, which takes place from April 9 through April 16.

The company also said there were no unexpected serious side effects observed in patients.

WILMINGTON, Del. — Anglo-Swedish drug maker AstraZeneca has enrolled the first patient in a late-stage clinical trial for a drug to treat constipation related to use of opioid painkillers, the company said.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A drug under investigation as a treatment for a rare genetic disorder that causes abnormally high triglyceride levels in the blood has received orphan-drug designation from the Food and Drug Administration.

NEW YORK — Late-stage clinical trial data for a Keryx Biopharmaceuticals drug to treat kidney disease will be presented at a medical conference in Las Vegas.

Keryx said Monday that phase-3 data for the drug Zerenex (ferric citrate), a drug for abnormally high phosphate levels in patients with end-stage kidney disease on dialysis, will be presented at the upcoming National Kidney Foundation spring clinical meetings in April.

The company announced “positive” results from a phase-3 trial of the drug in November.

JERUSALEM — An investigational drug made by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries for treating allergies is safe and effective, according to results of a late-stage clinical trial announced Wednesday.

Teva said the phase-3 trial of the nasally inhaled drug Qnaze (beclomethasone dipropionate) showed that it significantly relieved symptoms of seasonal and perennial allergic rhinitis compared with placebo while demonstrating a similar safety profile.