A late-stage clinical trial of a Huntington's disease treatment is being discontinued, according to Science.
Roche had been testing tominersen, an investigational antisense therapy aimed at reducing the level of mutated huntingtin protein, mHTT, among people with Huntington's disease. But the company announced that, based on a recommendation from its Independent Data Monitoring Committee, it would be stopping dosing in the trial. According to Roche, the panel made its recommendation based on tominersen's potential benefit/risk profile for study participants.
"This is very unfortunate news to deliver on the tominersen Phase III study and we know it will be especially difficult for people with Huntington's disease to hear," Levi Garraway, Roche's Chief Medical Officer and Head of Global Product Development, says in a statement. The company says it plans to analyze the data from the trial and share what it has learned with the Huntington's disease community.
According to Science, the decision to stop the trial surprised its investigators, who recently said they expected it to provide results in 2022.