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Zelira Therapeutics achieves primary endpoints of medicinal cannabis trial for insomnia

Last updated: 01:25 19 Feb 2020 EST, First published: 23:08 18 Feb 2020 EST

Zelira Therapeutics Ltd - Zelira Therapeutics achieves primary endpoints of medicinal cannabis trial for insomnia
The lack of serious adverse or persistent mild adverse events is encouraging

Zelira Therapeutics Ltd (ASX:ZLD) (OTCQB:ZLDAF) has revealed positive Phase 1b/2a results confirming that ZLT-101 therapy achieved the primary endpoint of a statistically significant improvement in Insomnia Severity Index scores in patients diagnosed with chronic insomnia.

The Phase 1b/2a trial recruited 24 chronic insomnia patients, aged between 25-70.

The study was a randomised, double-blind, cross-over design involving 14 nights of ZTL-101 and 14 nights of placebo, separated by a one-week washout period.

Primary endpoint 1: safe and well tolerated

A total of 36 non-serious adverse events possibly related to ZTL-101 medication were recorded from 17 participants.

The most frequently reported adverse event was xerostomia (dry mouth) (22.2% of all events) followed by dizziness (16.7%), headache (11.1%) and feeling abnormal (11.1%).

All adverse events were classified as mild and had either resolved (97.5%) overnight or soon after waking each day or were resolving at the end of the trial.

Primary endpoint 2: significant change in ISI scores

Compared to baseline Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) scores (18.0±3.7) a significant decrease was observed following ZTL-101 (12.9±5.3).

The magnitude of decrease in ISI scores following ZTL-101 and placebo were 5.2±4.3 and 0.0±3.3, respectively.

Importantly, the ISI scores following ZTL-101 and placebo were significantly different (p<0.001). >< 0.001).

Principal investigator for the study and director at the Centre for Sleep Science at the University of Western Australia professor Peter Eastwood said: “This study represents the most rigorous clinical trial ever undertaken to assess the therapeutic potential of medicinal cannabis to treat the symptoms of chronic insomnia.

“It’s also the first trial to use the Insomnia Severity Index, arguably the current gold standard in this field, to measure the efficacy of a medicinal cannabis product to treat insomnia symptoms.

“The fact that ZLT-101 treatment achieved a statistically significant improvement in ISI scores is very impressive, particularly given the relatively short two-week dosing window.

“The lack of serious adverse or persistent mild adverse events is also encouraging given the reported safety issues for several already approved insomnia therapies.

“Taken together, these results suggest ZLT-101 has potential as a novel treatment for Insomnia.”

“World’s first clinically validated cannabis medicine for insomnia”

Zelira chairman Osagie Imasogie said: “The positive outcome to this trial represents an important milestone for Zelira and its commitment to address the unmet need for clinically validated cannabis medicines and offer more treatment options to physicians and patients.

“Having successfully completed its recent merger, Zelira is now poised to rapidly commercialise the world’s first clinically validated cannabis medicine for insomnia into global markets in 2020, including the US, based on the positive results of this study.”

Next steps

A final report from the clinical study including an analysis of a comprehensive suite of secondary endpoints will be provided by end of March 2020.

These results will inform the design of any future clinical studies.

Zelira will also seek to deploy its Launch, Learn and Develop strategy to commence supply of its clinically validated insomnia formula in countries and states where medicinal cannabis has been legalised including Australia, the USA, Germany and the UK.

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