A randomized controlled phase II clinical trial comparing ONO‐4053, a novel DP1 antagonist, with a leukotriene receptor antagonist pranlukast in patients with seasonal allergic rhinitis

BACKGROUND: Prostaglandin D(2) (PGD (2)) is primarily produced by mast cells and is contributing to the nasal symptoms including nasal obstruction and rhinorrhea. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a novel PGD (2) receptor 1 (DP1) antagonist, ONO‐4053, in patients with seasonal allergic rhinitis (SAR). METHODS: This study was a multicenter, randomized, double‐blind, parallel‐group study of patients with SAR. Following a one‐week period of placebo run‐in, patients who met the study criteria were randomized to either the ONO‐4053, leukotriene receptor antagonist pranlukast, or placebo group for a two‐week treatment period. A total of 200 patients were planned to be randomly assigned to receive ONO‐4053, pranlukast, or placebo in a 2:2:1 ratio. Nasal and eye symptoms were evaluated. RESULTS: Both ONO‐4053 and pranlukast had higher efficacy than placebo on all nasal and eye symptoms. ONO‐4053 outperformed pranlukast in a total of three nasal symptom scores (T3NSS) as well as in individual scores for sneezing, rhinorrhea, and nasal itching. For T3NSS, the Bayesian posterior probabilities that pranlukast was better than placebo and ONO‐4053 was better than pranlukast were 70.0% and 81.6%, respectively, suggesting that ONO‐4053 has a higher efficacy compared with pranlukast. There was no safety‐related issue in this study. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated that the efficacy of ONO‐4053 was greater than that of pranlukast with a similar safety profile. This study indicates the potential of ONO‐4053 for use as a treatment for SAR (JapicCTI‐142706).