In a possible setback for scientists attempting to make drugs out of a substance found in red wine, GlaxoSmithKline PLC said a clinical trial of one drug in cancer patients has been halted due to safety concerns.
Glaxo acquired the drug in 2008 when it paid $720 million for Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, a biotech company in Cambridge, Mass. The drug, known as SRT501, contains a reformulated version of resveratrol, a substance found in low quantities in red wine.
Glaxo said Tuesday it has halted a small trial in multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells in bone marrow, because some patients developed a complication called cast nephropathy, a condition that can cause kidney failure.
George Vlasuk, chief executive of Sirtris, said in a phone interview that the complication is common in multiple myeloma patients and "may or may not be related to" the drug. Glaxo halted the trial "out of an abundance of caution" while it studies the data further, he said.
Dr. Vlasuk said Tuesday that the compounds "do activate SIRT1" and that Glaxo and Sirtris plan to publish a paper soon to clarify their case. He also raised questions about the way Pfizer tested the compounds' efficacy on blood-glucose levels, and said Pfizer's result "is not consistent with at least six papers published by independent laboratories that appear in the scientific literature."
"We're very confident in not only the science we're doing but we're also very confident in the direction we're going in," Dr. Vlasuk said. "With that said, we're still trying to understand at the molecular level how these compounds actually work."
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