Aerie Pharmaceuticals Announces Initiation Of Second Phase 3 Trial For Roclatan

Aerie Pharmaceuticals Inc AERI, a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company that focuses on the treatment of glaucoma and other diseases of the eye, announced on Monday that it has successfully began dosing the first patients enrolled in Mercury 2, the company's second Phase 3 registration trial of Roclatan. Roclatan is a novel once-daily eye drop that Aerie is testing for its ability to lower intraocular pressure in patients with glaucoma or ocular hypertension. Aerie began its first Phase 3 trial for Roclatan, named Mercury 1, last September. A third Phase 3 trial, named Mercury 3, is scheduled to commence in the first half of 2017 and is intended to be the sole purpose of facilitating regulatory approval and commercialization in Europe. "We are pleased to have commenced Mercury 2 on schedule, and we currently expect to read out topline 90-day efficacy data for the trial in the second quarter of 2017. Further, the Mercury 1 topline 90-day efficacy readout continues to be on track for the third quarter of 2016. Should both Mercury registration trials be successful, we expect to file the NDA for RoclatanTM in the second half of 2017, approximately one year after we anticipate filing the NDA for RhopressaTM," said Vicente Anido, Jr., Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Aerie. Shares of Aerie Pharmaceuticals showed no trades early Monday morning and have plunged more than 60 percent over the past year.