On 7/24/09, NeurogesX (NASDAQ:NGSX) announced preliminary results of a short-term clinical study (Study C123) of Qutenza in patients with post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN) following pre-treatment with an FDA approved topical anesthetic. As part of the ongoing new drug application (NDA) review, the FDA requested the study to determine whether an FDA-approved topical anesthetic would provide similar tolerability to the topical agent used as a pretreatment in the clinical development program. Preliminary results of Study C123 showed the mean duration of patch application was 60.2 minutes, versus a target duration of Qutenza patch application of 60 minutes, and no patients removed the Qutenza patch prematurely.

NGSX expects to provide results from the study to the FDA prior to the PDUFA action date of 8/16/09, and the Company stated that the impact of this data submission on the Agency's timing for a decision on the NDA is not yet known. NGSX received approval on 5/21/09 to market Qutenza in the EU. Qutenza is a skin patch that is designed to locally deliver a high-concentration (8%) of the active substance capsaicin to provide sustained relief from peripheral nerve pain.

On 7/23/09, Rigel Pharma (NASDAQ:RIGL) announced that in the TASKi3 Phase 2b clinical trial in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients who had failed to respond to at least one biologic treatment, the group treated with R788 (fostamatinib disodium) did not report significantly higher ACR 20, ACR 50, ACR 70 and DAS28 response rates than the placebo group at three months, and therefore, the trial failed to meet its efficacy endpoints. RIGL stated that its objective with R788 in RA is to position the product after methotrexate and before biological therapies are used, and the Company believes that this patient population represents a large market opportunity for the product.

On 7/9/09, RIGL announced that R788 produced significant clinical improvement in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in the TASKi2 Phase 2b clinical trial of 457 patients treated for up to 6 months. Consistent with the previous Phase 2a clinical trial (TASKi1), the onset of effect of R788 occurred within one week after the initiation of therapy and was maintained. The most frequent adverse events were expected based on TASKi1 and appear to be manageable. The significant, early and sustained efficacy, combined with a good safety profile, supports Rigel's plans to conduct corporate partnership discussions with respect to R788 and initiate a Phase 3 clinical program with R788 in RA during 1H10 with a corporate partner.

Disclosure: No positions