Randomised clinical trial: exploratory phase 2 study of ONO-2952 in diarrhoea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome

Background: ONO-2952 is a novel and selective inhibitor of translocator protein 18 kDa that reduces stress-induced defecation and visceral hyperalgesia in rat models.

Aim: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of ONO-2952 in females with irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhoea in an exploratory proof-of-concept study.

Methods: A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was conducted at 49 US centres. Two hundred subjects with irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhoea (Rome III criteria) were randomised to ONO-2952 20 mg, or 60 mg, or placebo. Subjects recorded irritable bowel syndrome symptoms daily during a 2-week baseline period, the 4-week treatment period and for 4 weeks post-treatment. The co-primary endpoints were change from baseline to week 4 in abdominal pain, stool consistency and stool frequency.

Results: Improvements in irritable bowel syndrome symptoms were seen with ONO-2952 over placebo in per-protocol analyses for all three co-primary endpoints, but these did not reach statistical significance at the 5% level. The largest improvement was seen with ONO-2952 60 mg. ONO-2952 was well tolerated with a safety profile similar to that of placebo. Most adverse events were mild or moderate in severity and not treatment related.

Conclusion: ONO-2952 showed evidence of clinical efficacy in reducing irritable bowel syndrome-related symptoms in female subjects with irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhoea, and further evaluation is, therefore, warranted to assess its potential as a treatment for irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhoea (NCT01844180).