Andrew A. Wolff
Analyst · Piper Jaffray
Thank you, Robert. In the first quarter, we concluded dosing and follow-up of patients in Benefit-ALS. More recently, we completed the data collection, database lock and the analyses to inform the presentation by Jeremy Shefner, trial’s lead investigator at AAN. As you know, BENEFIT-ALS was a Phase IIb multinational, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, clinical trial designed to evaluate the safety, tolerability and potential efficacy of tirasemtiv in patients with ALS. BENEFIT-ALS enrolled 711 patients from 73 centers in eight countries. 605 patients were randomized to double-blind treatment, of those 302 were randomized to placebo and 303 to tirasemtiv. We had previously reported that a programming error committed by our data management vendor caused 58 patients initially randomized to and treated with tirasemtiv to be subsequently dispensed and treated with placebo. To preserve the scientific integrity of the trial, a protocol amendment excluded from the primary efficacy analysis all 156 patients who were randomized in blocks that included any of the 58 affected patients. The primary efficacy analysis of BENEFIT-ALS compared to change in the ALS functional rating scale and its revised form, or the ALSFRS-R from baselines of the average score after eight and 12 weeks of double-blind treatment on tirasemtiv versus placebo. BENEFIT-ALS did not achieve its primary endpoint. The ALSFRS-R declined to 2.98 on tirasemtiv, versus 2.40 points on placebo with the p-value of 0.11. Consequently, BENEFIT-ALS joined the long list of clinical trials that have built to demonstrate an effect on the ALSFRS-R. While tirasemtiv did not affect the ALSFRS-R in BENEFIT-ALS, several clinically important measures of respiratory performance and other measures of skeletal muscle function and fatigability were the protocols specified secondary endpoints. While the effective tirasemtiv on the secondary endpoint was inconsistent, statistically significant and potentially, clinically important increases versus placebo and slowed by our capacities and muscle strength more to serve on tirasemtiv. Slow Vital Capacity or SVC is the most routinely performed measure of pulmonary function in patients with ALS. This measures the maximum volume of air, which can be exhaled in a slow and steady manner. SVC is generally viewed as a clinically useful measure of these progressions and its rates are defined as an important predictor of survival. In BENEFIT-ALS, SVC declined more than twice as quickly in patients on placebo as on tirasemtiv, specifically 2.7 percentage points per 30 days on placebo versus 1.2 on tirasemtiv, while we believe this reduction in the rate of decline in SVC on tirasemtiv versus placebo, maybe clinically meaningful, it is definitely statistically significant that the p-value of 0.0006. In addition, the rate of decline in muscle strength, as reflected by the percent change from baseline in the Mega-Score of muscle strength was also statistically, significantly lower on tirasemtiv versus placebo. The Mega-Score is a composite measure of strength of five muscle groups on each side to our knowledge, no prior clinical trial in patients with ALS as demonstrated statistically significant and potentially clinically meaningful effects on measures of respiratory performance and skeletal muscle function. These findings are encouraging, but did not explain by treatment with tirasemtiv and BENEFIT-ALS did not demonstrate an effect on other measures of pulmonary function and the ALSFRS-R. however, we have begun to understand what may be confounding the results of BENEFIT-ALS in connection with the effect of tirasemtiv on ALSFRS-R. As a result, patients on tirasemtiv lost 0.9 kilograms more weight over 12 weeks of double-blind treatments and patients on placebo, while weight loss is a concern in patients with ALS that may also be the key to understanding a lack of an effective from tirasemtiv on the ALSFRS-R in BENEFIT-ALS. Patients who are less than the medium weight loss on tirasemtiv during the trial did moderately better on tirasemtiv at placebo, reflecting a specifically significant interaction between the amount of weight loss and the effect of tirasemtiv on the ALSFRS-R. this could mean that tirasemtiv may benefit those ALS patients who can target. as a result, we working to understand better the relationships between the tolerability and the potential efficacy of tirasemtiv and we’ll need to consider the findings from these additional analyses in the context of our broader skeletal muscle troponin program. Additional presentation of BENEFIT-ALS data, our plans are occurred during the annual meeting of the European network for the Cure ALS or ENCALS in Leuven, Belgium May 22 to May 24 and the European Federation of Neurological Societies, European Neurological Society, Joint Congress of European Neurology 2014 in Istanbul, Turkey from May 31 to June 3. I ensure these results from BENEFIT-ALS and our perspective on those. I will now turn the call back to Robert.