Galapagos and Servier's GLPG1972/S201086 fails in knee osteoarthritis patients

Belgium-based biotech Galapagos’ (Euronext: GLPG) shares were down 8% at 108.20 euros in morning trading today, after the company, along with partner French independent drugmaker Servier, reported that no signal of activity was observed in the top-line results in their ROCCELLA Phase II trial of GLPG1972/S20186.

ROCCELLA is a global, double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose ranging trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of three different once-daily oral doses of GLPG1972/S201086 in 932 patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) over 52 weeks of treatment. The study population was aged between 40 to 76 years (mean age was 63), mainly female (70%) and with a mean disease duration of seven years.

The primary objective of ROCCELLA was to demonstrate the efficacy of at least one dose of GLPG1972/S201086 compared to placebo after 52 weeks of treatment in reducing cartilage loss of the central medial tibiofemoral compartment of the target knee via quantitative MRI.