MGI WILL START AQUAVAN TRIALS NEXT YEAR

MGI Pharma has announced that it will begin the final studies needed for approval of its experimental surgical sedative, Aquavan, early next year.

The company will conduct two late-stage trials starting in early 2006. Both studies will use patients undergoing examinations that use sedation: 300 getting colonscopies in one case and 250 undergoing bronchoscopies in another. The company will also conduct a third safety study using patients undergoing minor surgeries. Enrollment in all three trials should take approximately one year.