TEL-AVIV, June 24, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Kitov Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ/TASE: KTOV), an innovative biopharmaceutical company focused on late-stage drug development, today announced newly available data from its successfully completed Phase III study of KIT-302 suggest beneficial effects on kidney(renal) function. Damage to renal function is a serious side effect of NSAIDs.
The Company’s combination drug, KIT-302, simultaneously treats pain caused by osteoarthritis and treats hypertension, which is a common side effect of stand-alone drugs that treat osteoarthritis pain. KIT-302 is comprised of two U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved drugs, celecoxib (Celebrex®) for the treatment of pain caused by osteoarthritis and amlodipine besylate, a drug designed to treat hypertension.
Further analysis of data obtained in the Phase III clinical trial, whose top line results were announced in December 2015,showed that celecoxib increased serum creatinine compared to placebo;impaired renal function is a major concern with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). In contrast, while amlodipine alone reduced serum creatinine (-2.55 umol/L), a greater reduction in plasma levels of creatinine was achieved in patients in the KIT-302 arm (-3.22 umol/L), suggesting better renal function.
Additional data supporting the conclusion that KIT-302 is beneficial to renal function were measurements of peripheral edema, a known side effect of calcium channel blockers, such as amlodipine. Peripheral edema was reported in 15.6% of patients receiving amlodipine but in only 8.2% of patients receiving KIT-302. These data suggest that KIT-302 protects against the widely recognized undesirable side effect of amlodipine in causing fluid retention by the kidneys.
Dr. Paul Waymack, Kitov’s Chief Medical Officer,said: “We are very pleased with the outcome of the renal function analysis. We believe it demonstrates that in addition to addressing hypertension side effects caused by celecoxib, KIT-302 also addresses fluid retention resulting from amlodipine: a known side effect caused by calcium channel blockers.”
“Given the potential marketing advantages of these findings,we intend to conduct a clinical trial designed to scientifically validate these beneficial renal effects in parallel with the New Drug Application we plan to submit at the end of 2016,” stated Chief Executive Officer Isaac Israel. The study may also provide an explanation for the synergistic antihypertensive effect, where the reduction in blood pressure demonstrated with KIT-302 was higher than that observed with amlodipine alone.”
