Forest Laboratories and Ironwood announce positive trial results

Forest Laboratories, together with its partner Ironwood, have announced that their jointly-developed chronic constipation treatment linaclotide has performed well during two clinical trials.

In both studies, statistical significance was achieved for all pre-specified secondary endpoints, including measures of bloating, abdominal discomfort and average weekly complete spontaneous bowel movement.

The most common adverse effects in candidates treated with linaclotide were diarrhoea, flatulence and abdominal pain.

Overall rates of discontinuation due to adverse events were 7.4 per cent for linaclotide and 4.2 per cent for the placebo.

Howard Solomon, chairman and chief executive of Forest Laboratories, commented: “The results of these two trials confirm the potential for linaclotide to bring relief to the millions of patients suffering from many of the symptoms associated with chronic constipation.”

In other Forest Laboratories news, the firm posted its third-quarter financial results for 2009 last month, revealing that its net sales for the period rose by 40 per cent from $925.6 million (562.2 million pounds) to $962.7 million, compared to the same period of 2008.