Phase III SKYLARK study of SAGE 217 meets all endpoints in postpartum depression.- Biogen and Sage Therapeutics

Women treated with zuranolone 50 mg (n=98) demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in depressive symptoms at Day 15, the primary endpoint, compared to placebo (n=97) as measured by a change from baseline (CFB) in the 17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD-17) total score. The least-squares (LS) mean (SE) CFB in HAMD-17 total score at Day 15 for women who received zuranolone 50 mg was -15.6 (0.82) compared with -11.6 (0.82) for women who received placebo (LS mean difference -4.0 points; p=0.0007).

The study met all key secondary endpoints with rapid and statistically significant improvement in depressive symptoms as early as Day 3 for participants treated with zuranolone 50 mg compared to placebo, which was sustained at all measured timepoints through Day 45 as measured by CFB in HAMD-17 total score. In addition, the study demonstrated statistically significant improvement in the key secondary endpoint of change from baseline in the Clinical Global Impression Severity (CGI-S) scale at Day 15 for participants treated with zuranolone 50 mg as compared to placebo (zuranolone -2.2 vs. placebo -1.6, p= 0.0052). The CGI-S is a clinician-administered 7-point scale that rates the severity of a person’s disease at the time of assessment. Zuranolone 50 mg was generally well-tolerated and demonstrated a safety profile consistent with that observed in the clinical development program to date.

Sage Therapeutics and Biogen have initiated a rolling submission of a New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for zuranolone in the treatment of MDD and plan to complete the MDD NDA filing in the second half of 2022. An associated NDA filing for PPD is anticipated in early 2023.