Absorption, disposition and metabolic pathway of amiselimod (MT-1303) in healthy volunteers in a mass balance study.

The absorption, metabolism and excretion of MT-1303 were investigated in healthy male subjects after a single oral dose of 0.4 mg [14C]-MT-1303 (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02293967). The MT-1303 concentration in the plasma reached a maximum at 12 h after administration. Thereafter, the concentration declined with a half-life of 451 h. At the final assessment on Day 57, 91.16% of the administered radioactivity was excreted, and the cumulative excretion in the urine and faeces was 35.32% and 55.84%, respectively. The most abundant metabolite in plasma was MT-1303-P, which accounted for 42.6% of the area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC) of the total radioactivity. The major component excreted in urine was Human Urine (HU)4 (3066434), accounting for 28.1% of radioactivity in the sample (4.05% of the dose), whereas MT-1303 was a major component in the faeces, accounting for 89.8% of radioactivity in the sample (25.49% of the dose) up to 240 h after administration. This study indicates that multiple metabolic pathways are involved in the elimination of MT-1303 from the human body and the excretion of MT-1303 and MT-1303-P via the kidney is low. Therefore, MT-1303 is unlikely to cause conspicuous drug interactions or alter pharmacokinetics in patients with renal impairment.

Discovery of evocalcet, a next-generation calcium-sensing receptor agonist for the treatment of hyperparathyroidism.

The calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR) plays an important role in sensing extracellular calcium ions and regulating parathyroid hormone secretion by parathyroid gland cells, and the receptor is a suitable target for the treatment of hyperparathyroidism. Cinacalcet hydrochloride is a representative CaSR agonist which widely used for the hyperparathyroidism. However, it has several issues to clinical use, such as nausea/vomiting and strong inhibition of CYP2D6. We tried to improve these issues of cinacalcet for a new pharmaceutical agent as a preferable CaSR agonist. Optimization from cinacalcet resulted in the identification of pyrrolidine compounds and successfully led to the discovery of evocalcet as an oral allosteric CaSR agonist. Evocalcet, which exhibited highly favorable profiles such as CaSR agonistic activity and good DMPK profiles, will provide a novel therapeutic option for secondary hyperparathyroidism.

Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics, and Safety of Canagliflozin in Japanese Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

INTRODUCTION: Canagliflozin is a sodium glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitor approved worldwide for the treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The present study evaluated pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and safety of canagliflozin in Japanese patients with T2DM. METHODS: Canagliflozin, at doses of 25, 100, 200, or 400 mg, was administered as a single dose and, after a washout of 1 day, in repeated doses for 14 consecutive days to 61 subjects in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Plasma concentrations of canagliflozin and urinary glucose excretion (UGE) were measured, and renal threshold for glucose excretion (RTG) was calculated. Safety was evaluated on the basis of adverse event (AE) reports, blood and urine laboratory parameters, and vital signs. RESULTS: Plasma canagliflozin maximum concentration and area under the concentration-time curve (AUC) values increased in a dose-dependent manner with the time to maximum concentration (t max) of 1.0 h and elimination half-life (t 1/2) of 10.22-13.26 h on Day 1. No significant changes in t max and t 1/2 were observed after multiple-dose administration. The linearity factors, as calculated from the ratios of AUC0-24h on Day 16 to AUC0-∞ on Day 1, were close to 1 in all canagliflozin groups. Canagliflozin increased UGE0-24h (80-110 g/day with canagliflozin ≥100 mg) and decreased RTG from the first day of treatment; these effects were sustained during the entire period of multiple administration. No significant AEs were noted. Urine volume was slightly increased on Day 1, but subsequent changes after repeated doses for 14 days were small. Urinary sodium tended to be higher in the early treatment period, whereas no particular change was observed in serum osmolality and hematocrit. CONCLUSION: Canagliflozin increased UGE, decreased RTG, and was well tolerated throughout the entire period of multiple administrations in Japanese patients with T2DM. FUNDING: Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov#NCT00707954.