Adjunctive Telotristat Demonstrates Efficacy in Carcinoid Syndrome

Lexicon Pharmaceuticals announced that the pivotal TELESTAR Phase 3 clinical trial met its primary endpoint, showing the benefit of oral telotristat etiprate in treating cancer patients with carcinoid syndrome that is not adequately controlled by the current standard of care, somatostatin analog depot injection (SSA) therapy.

TELESTAR (Telotristat Etiprate for Somatostatin Analogue Not Adequately Controlled Carcinoid Syndrome) is a double-blind, three-arm study that evaluated 250mg and 500mg doses of oral telotristat etiprate against placebo over a 12-week period and measured the reduction from baseline in the average number of daily bowel movements. Patients in both the treatment and placebo arms continued their SSA therapy throughout the study.

Results show that patients who added telotristat etiprate to SSA therapy at both the 250mg and 500mg doses experienced a statistically significant reduction from baseline compared to placebo in the average number of daily bowel movements over the 12-week study period (P<0.001).

Telotristat etiprate is the first investigational drug in clinical studies to target tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH), an enzyme that triggers the excess serotonin production within mNET cells that leads to carcinoid syndrome. If approved, telotristat etiprate would be the first oral treatment successfully developed for carcinoid syndrome and the first addition to the standard of care in more than 16 years.

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