Vercirnon fails Phase III trial for Crohn's disease

ChemoCentryx, Inc.reports that GlaxoSmithKline has announced that the first of four Phase III studies, the SHIELD-1 study, investigating vercirnon, an inhibitor of the chemokine receptor known as CCR9, in patients with moderate-to-severe Crohn's disease did not achieve the primary endpoint of improvement in clinical response and the key secondary endpoint of clinical remission.

The rates of serious adverse events and withdrawals due to adverse events were similar among all treatment groups including the placebo group, with a trend in dose-dependent increases in overall adverse event rates. GSK has indicated that it intends to continue to explore the safety and efficacy results to inform decisions about the clinical development program for vercirnon. New recruitment and dosing in the ongoing clinical program has been suspended pending further review of the SHIELD-1 results.