Paratek's Nuzyra Shows Promise in Phase IIb Trial for NTM Pulmonary Disease

Key Insights

• Paratek Pharmaceuticals' Nuzyra (omadacycline) demonstrated positive topline results in a Phase IIb trial for nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) pulmonary disease.
• The trial showed a trend favoring omadacycline, with at least 50% improvement in NTM symptoms in 34.1% of participants, compared to 12-20% in the placebo group.
• Nuzyra also improved microbiological endpoints, with 56.4% of the treatment group achieving negative sputum cultures versus 29.2% in the placebo group.

Paratek Pharmaceuticals has announced positive topline data from its Phase IIb trial evaluating the oral antibiotic Nuzyra (omadacycline) in adult patients with nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) pulmonary disease. The study suggests a potential new treatment option for this difficult-to-treat lung infection.

The therapy demonstrated an improvement in at least 50% of the NTM symptoms present at baseline, with no worsening of any baseline symptom. While the study was not designed to formally test for statistical differences between treatment arms, a trend favoring omadacycline was consistently observed across topline primary and secondary endpoints.

Trial Details and Results

The placebo-controlled Phase IIb trial (NCT04922554) enrolled 66 patients with NTM pulmonary disease caused by Mycobacterium abscessus. The primary efficacy endpoint was treatment response on the NTM Symptom Assessment Scale at Day 84, evaluated in two ways:

1. Improvement in at least 50% of the NTM symptoms present at baseline.
2. Improvement in at least 50% of the NTM symptoms present at baseline along with no worsening of any baseline symptom.

In the first evaluation, 34.1% of the participants demonstrated a favorable trend towards higher response rates compared with 20% of the placebo-treated subjects. The second evaluation saw 34.1% of the treatment participants showing a favorable trend towards higher response rates compared with 12% of the placebo group.

Microbiological Improvements

Nuzyra also showed improvement in microbiological endpoints, with 56.4% of treatment group patients having negative sputum cultures for Mycobacterium abscessus compared to 29.2% of the placebo group. At 84 days, 76.5% of the Nuzyra group saw a reduction in semi-quantitative sputum culture scores compared to 45.8% of placebo-treated patients.

Safety Profile

The most common treatment-emergent adverse events were gastrointestinal symptoms, leading to treatment discontinuation in four patients. Paratek is continuing to analyze the study data and plans to present and publish complete data at a later date.

Nuzyra's Background

Nuzyra is already approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of community-acquired bacterial pneumonia (CABP) and acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSI). Paratek was acquired by Novo Holdings and Gurnet Point in September 2023.