Reata Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Announces First Quarter 2021 Financial Results and Provides an Update on Clinical Development Programs

May 06, 2021, Source: Reata Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 

Data from the registrational Part 2 portion of the MOXIe Phase 2 trial of omaveloxolone in patients with FA (“MOXIe Part 2") and the open-label extension study (the “MOXIe Extension”) were analyzed in additional exploratory analyses (the “Delayed-Start Analyses”), whereby parallel trajectories between the patients randomized to placebo (placebo-to-omaveloxolone group) and those randomized to omaveloxolone (omaveloxolone-to-omaveloxolone group) in the double-blind period from MOXIe Part 2 through 48 weeks in the MOXIe Extension could provide evidence of disease-modifying activity. A total of 73 out of 75 (97%) patients without pes cavus who completed MOXIe Part 2 enrolled in the MOXIe Extension. 

The FDA has granted us a Type C meeting, which is scheduled to occur in the second quarter of 2021, to discuss the Delayed-Start Analyses and the FA development program. We plan to initiate a second pivotal study in the fourth quarter of 2021, incorporating input from both the FDA and the European Medicines Agency into the protocol before we initiate enrollment.

Drp1-dependent peptide reverse mitochondrial fragmentation, a homeostatic response in Friedreich ataxia

Johnson J, Mercado-Ayón E, Clark E, Lynch D, Lin H.; Pharmacol Res Perspect. 2021 May;9(3):e00755. doi: 10.1002/prp2.755. PMID: 33951329.

This paper demonstrates that frataxin deficiency causes excessive mitochondrial fragmentation that is dependent upon Drp1 activity in Friedreich ataxia cellular models. Drp1 inhibition by the small peptide TAT-P110 reverses mitochondrial fragmentation but also decreases ATP levels in frataxin-knockdown fibroblasts and FRDA patient fibroblasts, suggesting that fragmentation may provide a homeostatic pathway for maintaining cellular ATP levels. The cardiolipin-stabilizing compound SS-31 similarly reverses fragmentation through a Drp1-dependent mechanism, but it does not affect ATP levels. The combination of TAT-P110 and SS-31 does not affect FRDA patient fibroblasts differently from SS-31 alone, suggesting that the two drugs act through the same pathway but differ in their ability to alter mitochondrial homeostasis. In approaching potential therapeutic strategies for FRDA, an important criterion for compounds that improve bioenergetics should be to do so without impairing the homeostatic response of mitochondrial fragmentation.