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 The company said its once-a-day drug, arhalofenate, was shown to be
safe and well tolerated.
Gout is a condition affecting joints and muscles when the body acts
against a build-up of uric acid in the blood.
Described as a painful and common form of inflammatory arthritis,
gout affects nearly 8.3 million Americans, according to the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, citing data.
The study showed 46 percent of patients given CymaBay's arhalofenate
had a lower number of gout episodes, compared with patients taking
standard of care treatment allopurinol.
Arhalofenate works by lowering the levels of uric acid and reducing
the inflammation.
"Results from our clinical program to date suggest that arhalofenate
may represent a new paradigm for the treatment of gout," Pol Boudes,
CymaBay's chief medical officer, said.
This is the first study to show that arhalofenate produces
reductions in flares without concomitant dosing of colchicine, the
company said.
Colchicine is an anti-inflammatory compound that is commonly
prescribed to treat gout. The compound has been available in the
United States for more than half a century in injectable form.
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Intravenous form of colchicine has been ordered off the market by
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration because of toxicities and
fatalities.
Oral versions of the same compound are allowed to be sold to treat
gout as the side effects from a pill are mostly nausea, diarrhea and
stomach pain.
(Reporting by Rosmi Shaji in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb
Chakrabarty and Maju Samuel)
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