Amylin, Takeda suspend obesity drug trial

SAN DIEGO — Amylin Pharmaceuticals and Takeda Pharmaceutical have suspended a mid-stage trial of an obesity drug over safety concerns, the two said Wednesday.

The drug makers stopped the phase-2 trial of a combination of pramlintide and metreleptin due to problems that arose in two patients related to metreleptin. Amylin said the decision to suspend the trial did not affect its investigations of metreleptin as a treatment of diabetes and hypertriglyceridemia in patients with lipodystrophy.

“The safety of patients in our clinical programs is of paramount concern to the companies,” Amylin SVP and chief medical officer Orville Kolterman said. “We have taken this precaution so that we can thoroughly investigate this finding.”