Tarenflurbil Fails to Meet Primary End Point in Phase 3; End of the Road for Development

Susan Jeffrey

July 03, 2008

July 3, 2008 — In a brief statement issued June 30, Myriad Genetics reports that tarenflurbil (Flurizan) failed to have a significant effect in a phase 3 trial of patients with mild Alzheimer's disease (AD). In the same statement, it announced that it will not continue development of the compound.

The phase 3 trial, called the Act-Earli-AD trial, was comparing tarenflurbil with placebo in patients with mild AD. The release notes that no significant effect was seen on either of 2 co–primary end points, cognition and activities of daily living.

"We are disappointed that Flurizan failed to achieve significance in this study, and we will now discontinue development of this compound," Peter Meldrum, president and chief executive officer of Myriad Genetics, said in a statement from the company.

The results are disappointing after encouraging results from the phase 2 randomized trial suggesting that the drug, a selective amyloid-beta–lowering agent, was well tolerated and showed some indication of a dose-related effect on measures of daily activities and global function in mild AD, although without a significant effect on cognition. In moderate AD patients, however, there were no positive effects and some evidence of a negative effect on global function.

The phase 2 results were published online April 30 in Lancet Neurology and reported by Medscape Neurology & Neurosurgery at that time.

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