The Company provided the requested individual patient clinical safety reports, updated the investigator brochure and patient informed consent forms.
The clinical hold was initially triggered by a recent non-clinical finding in a 26-week rasH2 transgenic mouse model indicating benign and malignant subcutaneous skin tumors.
The rasH2 signal also prompted a re-examination of the four cancer cases observed across all rusfertide clinical trials involving over 160 patients and a comprehensive review of the safety database.
No additional cancer cases, and no other unexpected safety signals, surfaced in this process.
Protagonist says it is actively preparing to initiate the phase 3 study for polycythemia vera in Q1 of 2022.