New gastrointestinal drug fails clinical trial

Tranzyme Pharma and Norgine B.V. announced today that studies of ulimorelin, a drug which was designed to help patients recover their gastrointestinal (GI) function after surgery, have failed to show efficacy of the drug. "These results are surprising and disappointing. While we are still planning to analyze the data from the second phase 3 trial ULISES 008, which we expect by the end of the second quarter, we are stopping all other NDA [New Drug Application] activities for ulimorelin," said Vipin K. Garg, President and Chief Executive Officer of Tranzyme Pharma. The results of ULISES 007 show that, at two different doses, patients given ulimorelin did not regain normal GI funtion any faster than patients given a placebo.