Lilly pays BioMS $10M as MS trial continues

USA-based BioMS Medical Corp says that the independent Drug Safety Monitoring Board for the MAESTRO-01 trial has conducted a scheduled interim analysis of efficacy and safety and has recommended that the trial continue to completion triggering a $10.0 million milestone payment from partner Eli Lilly.

The pivotal Phase II/III Canadian and European study is assessing the firm's dirucotide (MBP8298) in patients with secondary progressive mutiple sclerosis. The interim DSMB analysis included patients from the first 200 to complete MAESTRO-01 and assessed the likelihood of the study reaching its primary endpoint at the end of the trial in MS patients with the target HLA-DR2 and/or HLA-DR4 immune response genes. "We are pleased by the results of the interim analysis and look forward to final efficacy and safety data from this trial next year," said Mark Freedman, director of the MS Research Clinic at the Ottawa Hospital in Canada.