{"id":4672,"date":"2011-02-10T16:33:56","date_gmt":"2011-02-10T21:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=4672"},"modified":"2013-05-29T05:45:34","modified_gmt":"2013-05-29T09:45:34","slug":"seroquel-iii-their-best-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2011\/02\/10\/seroquel-iii-their-best-shot\/","title":{"rendered":"seroquel III: their best shot&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div align=\"justify\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.accessdata.fda.gov\/drugsatfda_docs\/nda\/97\/020639s000_StatR_P2.pdf\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"100\" hspace=\"0\" height=\"60\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\" src=\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/images\/button-pdf.jpg\" \/><\/a><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/fda-approval-of-seroquel\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"100\" vspace=\"0\" hspace=\"4\" height=\"60\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\" src=\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/images\/button-graphic.jpg\" \/><\/a>Moving along. <strong><font color=\"#200020\">Trial 0008<\/font><\/strong> was <strong><font color=\"#200020\">Zeneca<\/font><\/strong>&#8216;s most successful trial for Seroquel, published in a more widely distributed journal. I&#8217;ve included the abstract in part because it describes the actual dosing schedule for Seroquel omitted from the F.D.A. statistical report.                   <\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<div align=\"center\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/9193196\" target=\"_blank\">Quetiapine in patients with schizophrenia. A high- and low-dose double-blind comparison with placebo<\/a><br \/>                   Archives of General Psychiatry.<\/strong>  1997 Jun;54(6):549-57.<br \/>                  by Small JG, Hirsch SR, Arvanitis LA, Miller BG, Link CG.<br \/>                   <sup>Division of Mental Health, Larue D. Carter Memorial Hospital, Indianapolis, Ind.<\/sup><\/div>\n<p>                  <\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><em><strong><font color=\"#200020\">Abstract<\/font><\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n<div align=\"justify\"><sup><strong><font color=\"#200020\">BACKGROUND:<\/font><\/strong> Quetiapine  fumarate (Seroquel [ICI 204,636]) is an atypical dibenzothiazepine  antipsychotic with a greater affinity for 5-hydroxytryptamine2 (5-HT2)  receptors than for D2 dopamine receptors; its efficacy in patients with  schizophrenia was shown in early phase 2 trials (maximum dose, 750  mg\/d).<\/sup><\/div>\n<p align=\"justify\"><sup><strong><font color=\"#200020\">METHODS:<\/font><\/strong> In  this multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 286 patients  hospitalized with chronic or subchronic schizophrenia [DSM-III-R] were  randomized to 6 weeks of treatment with high-dose quetiapine fumarate  (&lt; or = 750 mg\/d), n = 96; low-dose quetiapine fumarate (&lt; or =  250 mg\/d), n = 94; or placebo, n = 96. The Brief Psychiatric Rating  Scale (BPRS) and Clinical Global Impression Severity of Illness item  scores were the primary efficacy variables. Secondary efficacy variables  included the BPRS positive-symptom cluster score, the Modified Scale  for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms summary score (United States  only), and the total score from the negative scale of the Positive and  Negative Syndrome Scale (Europe only). Scores were analyzed using an  analysis of covariance for change from baseline at end point with last  observations carried forward. The model included baseline score  (covariate), center, and treatment. Extrapyramidal symptoms were  assessed using the Simpson-Angus Scale and the Barnes Akathisia Scale;  abnormal involuntary movements were assessed using the Abnormal  Involuntary Movement Scale. Frequency distributions of grouped  change-from-baseline scores were analyzed using chi 2 tests.<\/sup><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><span class=\"sub_abstract_label\"><sup><strong><font color=\"#200020\">RESULTS:<\/font><\/strong> <\/sup><\/span><sup>Of  280 patients in whom the efficacy of quetiapine was evaluated, 159 (42%  of those receiving high-dose treatment; 57%, low-dose treatment; and  59%, placebo) withdrew before trial completion, primarily because of  treatment failure. Significant (P &lt; .001, BPRS; P = .003, Clinical  Global Impression Severity of Illness item; and P = .003, BPRS  positive-symptom cluster) differences were identified between patients  receiving high-dose quetiapine and placebo for both primary efficacy  variables, with end point differences in the BPRS positive-symptom  cluster score showing quetiapine&#8217;s consistency in reducing positive  symptoms. The reduction of negative symptoms was less consistent;  high-dose quetiapine was superior on the Modified Scale for the  Assessment of Negative Symptoms but not on the negative scale of the  Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. Quetiapine was well tolerated and  did not induce extrapyramidal symptoms, sustained elevations of  prolactin, or clinically significant changes in hematologic parameters.<\/sup><\/p>\n<div align=\"justify\"><sup><strong><font color=\"#200020\">CONCLUSIONS:<\/font><\/strong> Quetiapine is an effective antipsychotic with a favorable safety profile. The optimum dose is probably greater than 250 mg\/d.<\/sup><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div align=\"justify\">Here&#8217;s what the report said, followed by some of the data from <strong><font color=\"#200020\">Trial 0008<\/font><\/strong>:<\/div>\n<ul>\n<div align=\"justify\"><sup>&quot;This 6-week study randomized a total of 286 patients among 37 centers  in the US (59%) and Europe (41 %): N=96 High dose, N=94 Low dose, N=96  Placebo&hellip; A total of 4 patients had no  post-baseline data, so that 282 patients comprise the effcacy ITT  population. The endpoints of interest are BPRS total, key BPRS, CGI  Severity and the negative PANSS (only in Europe) and the SANS (done only  in the US). The protocol states that ANCOVA with baseline as the  covariate would be used for all analyses. However, there is no plan for  multiple comparisons among treatment arms. Table 1 displays the baseline  conditions and demographics of the treatment groups. Completion rates  were 50% for High dose, 43% for Low dose, and 41% for Placebo.  &lsquo;Treatment failure&rsquo; accounted for between 40%-50% of the dropouts.&quot;<\/sup><\/div>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"520\" height=\"415\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/images\/fda-seroquel-4.gif\" \/><\/div>\n<div align=\"justify\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.accessdata.fda.gov\/drugsatfda_docs\/nda\/97\/020639s000_StatR_P2.pdf\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"100\" hspace=\"0\" height=\"60\" border=\"0\" align=\"left\" src=\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/images\/button-pdf.jpg\" \/><\/a><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/fda-approval-of-seroquel\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"100\" vspace=\"0\" hspace=\"4\" height=\"60\" border=\"0\" align=\"left\" src=\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/images\/button-graphic.jpg\" \/><\/a>I expect the people at <strong><font color=\"#200020\">Zeneca<\/font><\/strong> were pretty pleased to see those LOCF graphs on the left. That&#8217;s exactly what they hoped for. Even the OC graphs have the <font color=\"#009900\">green<\/font> circles indicating statistical significance [though they&#8217;re not quite so pretty]. Right now, we&#8217;re not talking about relevance so I&#8217;ll reserve any of those comments for a later time. Again, there were a lot of drop-outs. I&#8217;ve attempted to <em>roughly<\/em> translate the awkward bar graphs of the scores for the subjects that dropped out into a more readable form [the graph on the right is the inverse of the one above]:             <\/div>\n<div align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"520\" vspace=\"5\" height=\"162\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/images\/fda-seroquel-3.gif\" \/><\/div>\n<div align=\"justify\">As in <strong><font color=\"#200020\">Trial 0006<\/font><\/strong>, the early <strong><font color=\"#200020\">Trial 0008<\/font><\/strong> patients who dropped out were getting worse &#8211; more in the Placebo and Low Dose [&quot;&lt; or =  250 mg\/d&quot;] groups, but it wasn&#8217;t enough to obfuscate the differences they were looking for [as always there are questions &#8211; why did so many who were decidedly better drop out at the end?]. Here&#8217;s what the reviewers said about <strong><font color=\"#200020\">Trial 0008<\/font><\/strong>:<\/div>\n<ul>\n<div align=\"justify\"><sup>&quot;Tables 3a and 3b display the visit-wise results of the total BPRS for  the LOCF and observed cases analyses, respectively. It is not surprising  that the high dose is statistically significant but the low dose is  not, since the trial was planned (power= 90%) to find a 9 point  difference between the high dose and placebo arms for the BPRS&hellip; Tables  5a and 5b display the results of the key positive symptom BPRS cluster  for the LOCF and observed cases, respectively.&quot;<\/sup><\/div>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"justify\"><em>I wanted to look at the full text of the published article to see how they presented the data [and to see who was in the Acknowledgements &#8211; &quot;medical writing&quot;] but the download creeped along through an afternoon nap, some of the Egyptian revolution, and Mubarak&#8217;s interminable [and disappointing] speech. So I decided to let it run overnight during &quot;off-hours.&quot; I&#8217;ll post that part later as an update.<\/em><\/div>\n<p>           <\/p>\n<div align=\"justify\">For the moment I&#8217;ll say that this study does seem to show <strong><font color=\"#200020\">Seroquel<\/font><\/strong> to be an  antipsychotic drug &#8211; nothing to set off fireworks or to write home  about, but an antipsychotic drug nonetheless. As for the Clinical Trials world itself, it&#8217;s not a direct learning lab for the practice of clinical medicine. In this study, it took  three or four weeks to separate itself from placebos. But the two findings that actually impressed me in this and the last study were:<\/div>\n<ol>\n<li>\n<div align=\"justify\">In the first few weeks, Seroquel appeared to allow the subjects to stay in the study, suggesting that it was helpful early on.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>The High Dose Seroquel group had a 9% lower drop-out rate overall, again suggesting it was helpful.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div align=\"justify\">The idea of &quot;keeping people on the medication&quot; as an index of success will play an increasingly prominent role in later studies of efficacy, but for the moment, <strong><font color=\"#200020\">Zeneca<\/font><\/strong> put a point on their side of the scoreboard for <strong><font color=\"#200020\">Seroquel<\/font><\/strong> approval with <strong><font color=\"#200020\">Trial 0008<\/font><\/strong>.<\/div>\n<hr size=\"1\" \/>\n<div align=\"justify\"><u><strong><font color=\"#200020\">Update<\/font><\/strong><\/u> [at 1:00 AM it downloaded immediately]:<\/div>\n<div align=\"justify\">Well, to the Acknowledgements:<\/div>\n<ul>\n<div align=\"justify\"><sup>Accepted for publication November 6, 1996. This study was supported by a grant from Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, Macclesfield, England, and Wilmington, Del. We thank <font color=\"#990000\"><strong>Suzanne Bristow-Marcalus<\/strong> for medical writing support<\/font>; Jean Fennimore, RN, and Alison Smith, MSc, for trial organization and management support; Gary Cooper, MS, Jacqueline Fiore, Lesley Farrow, and Barney Home for trial monitoring support; and <font color=\"#990000\"><strong>Kathleen Jelliffe, Denise Redkar-Brown, Joy Russo, and Thais Womack<\/strong> for data management support<\/font>.<\/sup><\/div>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"justify\">By today&#8217;s standards, that&#8217;s suspect for ghost-writing. I think we can safely assume that this article was written in Delaware at <strong><font color=\"#200020\">Zeneca<\/font><\/strong>&#8216;s headquarters. <\/div>\n<hr size=\"1\" \/>\n<div><strong><font color=\"#200020\">UPDATE:<\/font><\/strong> <em>at the risk of TMI<\/em><br \/>  Another F.D.A. report [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.accessdata.fda.gov\/drugsatfda_docs\/nda\/97\/020639ap_Seroquel_medrP2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><strong><font color=\"#200020\"><u>Review and Evaluation of the Clinical Data<\/u><\/font><\/strong><\/a>] has a different version of the conclusion:<\/div>\n<div align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"450\" vspace=\"5\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/images\/fda-seroquel-16.gif\" \/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Moving along. Trial 0008 was Zeneca&#8216;s most successful trial for Seroquel, published in a more widely distributed journal. I&#8217;ve included the abstract in part because it describes the actual dosing schedule for Seroquel omitted from the F.D.A. statistical report. Quetiapine in patients with schizophrenia. A high- and low-dose double-blind comparison with placebo Archives of General [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4672"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41780,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4672\/revisions\/41780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}