Global Blood discontinues GBT440 for IPF

Global Blood Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:GBT) said it will discontinue development of GBT440 to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and will instead focus its resources on developing the product to treat sickle cell disease. The company expects top-line data in 1H19 from the Phase III HOPE trial of the oral allosteric modifier of hemoglobin oxygen affinity to treat sickle cell disease.

Global Blood based its decision to discontinue development of the product for IPF on data from the Phase I Basecamp trial in healthy volunteers and the Phase IIa GBT440-006 and ZEPHYR trials in patients with sickle cell disease. GBT440 significantly increased oxygen saturation in both Basecamp and GBT440-006. The company said those results confirmed the therapy's mechanism of action and showed that the candidate is a "potent and effective" hemoglobin modifier, but said the improvement in oxygen saturation was not sufficient to justify continuing the IPF program. GBT440 was generally well tolerated across all three trials...