On Tuesday, Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals said it will shift focus to its experimental cardiometabolic drug plozasiran and will deprioritize its work on zodasiran, emphasizing the need to be thoughtful about how it uses its resources for its RNAi pipeline.
Both drugs produced encouraging results in cardiometabolic conditions, according to the company. But as head of investor relations Vincent Anzalone added on a Tuesday conference call, “We need to make sure that we are investing wisely.”
The company said the goal is to be “launch-ready” in 2025. Plozasiran and zodasiran are both RNAi therapies, but have different targets and slightly different effects. Plozasiran targets apolipoprotein C-III, a regulator of triglyceride metabolism. In a Phase 3 trial for familial chylomicronemia syndrome (FCS), a condition marked by high levels of triglycerides, it achieved an 80% median reduction in fasting triglycerides at ten months compared to a 17% median reduction for placebo patients.
Going forward, Arrowhead will “only conduct further development of zodasiran if we identify a suitable development and commercialization partner,” chief medical scientist Bruce Given said in a news release.
“We felt like there really wasn’t a bad choice,” Anzalone said on the R&D call. “But for us as a company, it just did not make sense and wasn’t feasible for us to fund two large Phase 3 cardiovascular outcome studies.”
There are currently no approved treatments for FCS, though Ionis’ candidate is currently under FDA review. Arrowhead plans on filing for approval “the earliest that’s agreeable with the agency,” Given said, with hopes to launch in 2025.
Plozasiran is also in Phase 3 trials for severe hypertriglyceridemia (SHTG) and mixed hyperlipidemia.
It isn’t necessarily the end of the road for zodasiran, Arrowhead stressed on Tuesday.
“Arrowhead is prioritizing plozasiran for internal development and looks to do future development of zodasiran potentially with a partner/licensee,” a spokesperson told Endpoints News.