Neuro,
“I think the issue is in sorting out what the resulting pattern of data may mean--whether it's a clinically meaningful signal, and for which SA patients.”
If CX-1739 reduces just the number of episodes of apnea in some patients, would that be considered a meaningful signal? So, lets say that on average the patients in this trial experience a 25% reduction in apnea episodes with CX-1739. Would this be considered a meaningful signal? It would seem to me that such a reduction is still not enough and the trial failed to show “enough” efficacy. I really don’t know what a marginal effect or clinically meaningful outcome would be. Could it be the depth of the apnea episodes are reduced? Instead of lasting 15 seconds per episode they on average last 10? Or of the patients who got CX-1739, one or two showed a distinct “signal.” My guess, at the very least, it would be the latter.
Now, considering the comments we got from Varney about when the results would be released, and then no word after almost two months from that date, suggests to me that the SA results were quite strong and these results alone have placed Cortex in an unprecedented bargaining position.