- Arena Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ARNA) is up 1% premarket, albeit on only 100 shares, on the heels of its announcement of positive long-term data from an open-label extension of a Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating ralinepag, a prostacyclin receptor agonist, in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).
- Patients who continued on ralinepag had a median duration of treatment of 1.8 years at the time of right heart catheterization. They showed sustained improvements from baseline pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) (a measure of the extent that pulmonary circulation "resists" cardiac output) and 6-minute walk test distance. The separation from control was statistically significant.
- Patients switching from placebo to ralinepag (median duration of treatment = 1.4 years) experienced similar statistically valid sustained treatment benefits.
- Most of the patients were already receiving dual combination PAH background therapy.
- No new safety signals were observed.
- Ralinepag is currently in Phase 3 development.
- Now read: Biotech Stocks: Niche Operators Scientifically, Competing Directly As Investments
Original article