Shire's Fosrenol fares well in Ph II CKD study

UK drugmaker Shire says that the results from a Phase II study indicating that Fosrenol (lanthanum carbonate) can effectively reduce serum phosphate levels in chronic kidney disease. The agent is a non-calcium phosphate binder, indicated to treat hyperphosphatemia in end stage renal disease, also known as CKD Stage 5.

According to Shire, while the results of this exploratory study did not achieve its specified primary endpoint (control of serum phosphate to within normal levels), more Fosrenol-treated patients achieved this goal than did those in the placebo arm of this multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 90 pre-dialysis patients with CKD Stage 3 and 4 and hyperphosphatemia.

As a secondary endpoint, patients taking the drug were found to have statistically-significant reductions in serum phosphate levels after eight weeks of treatment versus those patients in the placebo arm.