Performance characteristics for some typical QT study designs under the ICH E-14 guidance
Abstract
The International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) guidance for clinical evaluation of QT prolongation (E14) affected drug development by advocating that a thorough QT study (TQT) be conducted during development to assess the QT prolongation liability of a compound. The ICH E14 Statistics Group shortly thereafter recommended that a noninferiority intersection-union test (IUT) be used to exclude a clinically worrisome QT prolongation. Recent analyses have indicated that the IUT might be overly conservative with respect to excluding QT prolongation. This report assesses the IUT false positive rate for 4 recently conducted TQT trials using simple simulation experiments. Positive TQT study rates ranged from negligible to nearly 60% depending on study design, sample size, and patient status, despite no drug effect. Addition of clinically nonmeaningful QT prolongations (up to 5 milliseconds) increased the positive study rate to 80% for 1 particular study design. Ultimately, these results reveal significant limitations of the IUT with respect to excluding an effect and study interpretation for certain trial designs.
References
Citations
Assessing the probability of drug-induced QTc-interval prolongation during clinical drug development
Related Concepts
Related Feeds
Arrhythmia
Arrhythmias are abnormalities in heart rhythms, which can be either too fast or too slow. They can result from abnormalities of the initiation of an impulse or impulse conduction or a combination of both. Here is the latest research on arrhythmias.