Cherry Juice Flowing in Gout Treatment Pipeline

Among the patients with a baseline serum uric level below 10 mg/dL, as is the case for a large majority of gout patients seen in clinical practice, the response rate to the highest dose of RDEA594 was 58%, said Dr. Perez-Ruiz of Hospital de Cruces in Vizcaya, Spain.

An official at Ardea Biosciences, San Diego, which is developing RDEA594, said in an interview that the company has not yet decided whether to take the drug into phase III trials as monotherapy or in combination with febuxostat, with which RDEA594 has shown synergistic effects.

Disclosures: Dr. Schlesinger has received research grant funding from Brownwood Acres and Novartis. Dr. Kitt is an employee of Nuon Therapeutics Inc. Dr. Perez-Ruiz disclosed that he serves as a consultant to Ardea Biosciences.

One-third of patients remained attack-free during 4-6 months on cherry juice concentrate.

Source Dr. schlesinger