The Food and Drug Administration has approved lumateperone for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults.
Lumateperone, an atypical antipsychotic, will be marketed by Intra-Cellular Therapies as Caplyta, according to a Dec. 23 statement from the company.
In the first, 335 patients with schizophrenia were randomized to two doses of lumateperone, an active comparator, or placebo. Those randomized to the approved 42-mg dose of lumateperone showed a statistically significant reduction in total score on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), compared with patients in the other groups. The median age in this study was 42 years; 17% of patients were female, 19% were white, and 78% were black.
In the second study, 450 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia were randomized in a double-blind fashion to one of two doses of lumateperone or placebo. Patients taking the approved dose showed a statistically significant reduction from baseline to day 28 in PANSS total score. In this study, patients’ median age was 44 years; 23% were female, 26% were white, and 66% were black.
Treatment with lumateperone appears to feature a more favorable cardiometabolic profile than that of other approved antipsychotic agents.
Patients treated with lumateperone for at least a year showed significant reductions in LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol, serum prolactin, and body weight, compared with baseline values recorded when participants were on various standard-of-care antipsychotics prior to switching, Suresh Durgam, MD, reported at the annual congress of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology. Other cardiometabolic parameters, including fasting blood glucose, insulin, triglycerides, and HDL cholesterol, showed only negligible change over the course of study, according to Dr. Durgam, a psychiatrist and senior vice president for late-stage clinical development and medical affairs at Intra-Cellular Therapies.
The most common adverse events with lumateperone were somnolence (24% vs. 10% on placebo) and dry mouth (6% vs. 2%).
Approval of lumateperone hit a snag last summer when the FDA canceled the Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee meeting it previously had called for to review the new drug application for lumateperone. The agency said the meeting was canceled because of “new information regarding the application.”
At the time, Intra-Cellular Therapies noted that it had provided additional information to the FDA to meet agency requests. This information was related to nonclinical studies.
“The FDA canceled the advisory committee meeting to allow sufficient time to review this new and any forthcoming information as they continue” to review the new drug application for lumateperone, Intra-Cellular said a statement.
The company plans to launch Caplyta late in the first quarter of 2020.
Bruce Jancin and Kerry Dooley Young contributed to this report.