Gilead Sciences, Galapagos Halt Studies for Autotaxin Inhibitor

Gilead Sciences and Galapagos have decided to discontinue research on their investigational autotaxin inhibitor ziritaxestat, including a phase 3 program evaluating it as a treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

The phase 3 program includes two identically designed late-stage trials that sought to enroll a combined 1,500 IPF patients. But the companies have decided to end their research on ziritaxestat after a review of unblinded data concluded that the drug had an unacceptable benefit-risk profile.

The companies are also discontinuing the long-term extension of their phase 2a trial evaluating the autotaxin inhibitor as a systemic sclerosis treatment.