Biotech Values

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Resveratrol (SRT501): Development Halted

http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2010/12/01/resveratrol_srt501_development_halted.php

Posted by Derek

Back in May, GlaxoSmithKline halted a trial of SRT501, which is a formulation of resveratrol, in myeloma. Now the folks at the Myeloma Beacon site are the first with the news that the company has halted all further development:

According to a GlaxoSmithKline spokesperson, an internal analysis of the kidney failure cases has concluded that they “most likely were due to the underlying disease … However, the formulation of SRT501 was not well tolerated, and side effects of nausea / vomiting / diarrhea may have indirectly led to dehydration, which exacerbated the development of the acute [kidney] failure.”

For this reason, the company decided to halt further development of SRT501 in multiple myeloma. The SRT501 formulation of resveratrol “may only offer minimal efficacy,” explained the Glaxo spokesperson, while increasing the chances of kidney failure. . .

. . .In a separate statement to The Myeloma Beacon, a Glaxo spokesperson explained the rationale for the company’s decision to halt all development of SRT501. Ending all work on SRT501, the spokesperson said, will allow Glaxo to focus its resources on the development of drugs that act similarly to SRT501, but have more favorable properties. The spokesperson mentioned, in particular, SRT2104 and SRT2379 as drugs similar to SRT501 that the company is developing.

These compounds are still a bit of a mystery - they've been in the clinical trial registry for a while, and are certainly the subject of active investigation, but we don't know how they fit into the whole activation-of-SIRT1 brouhaha. They haven't been challenged by the critics of the work, nor specifically defended by GSK, so we're just going to have to see how they perform out there in the real world (which was always going to be the final word, anyway).

But this would appear to be it for resveratrol itself in the real world, as far as GSK's concerned. Hey, does this mean that they'll let their two former Sirtris execs start selling it again on the side, now that they have no interest in the parent compound? One doubts it. But why not?