
“There have been anecdotal reports from several principal investigators that Optina may be providing benefit to patients,” said Dr. Vaughan Clift, chief medical officer. “The decision to reduce the sample size of the trial took into consideration requests from these site investigators, asking to extend the open label enrollment portion (where all patients receive active drug dose) of the trial beyond the 12 weeks allowed for in the protocol. These clinicians believed that their patients were improving while on the active drug and subsequently regressed quickly once they completed the open label phase. The enrollment in the open label extension phase was much higher than expected. Since DME is a very serious and progressive condition that often leads to blindness, the company believes it is in the patient’s best interest to analyze the data as soon as possible to confirm any observed benefits. By reducing the patient sample size, we can expect data by Q4, 2014.”
Date: June 25, 2014
Source: Ampio Pharmaceuticals