BioCentury
ARTICLE | Product Development

Secondary success

April 24, 2006 7:00 AM UTC

CombinatoRx Inc.'s CRx-170 missed the primary endpoint in a Phase IIa trial in asthma last week, but the company is encouraged by the fact that the low dose combination of budesonide and nortriptyline met a more clinically relevant secondary endpoint than its primary target, a biomarker that proved to be a more difficult endpoint than anticipated.

In the trial, CRx-170 failed to meet the predefined primary endpoint of a significant decrease in circulating monocyte CD163, a biomarker thought to be associated with inflammation. In hindsight, said President and CEO Alexis Borisy, the endpoint may have been the real problem. ...