sufficient to support U.S. regulatory approval, our ability to pursue regulatory approval in the European Union, if the MPOWERED Phase 3 clinical trial is positive, will require significant additional time and capital, which we may not be able to secure on favorable terms, if at all. The prospects for our business under these circumstances will be significantly diminished, our ability to continue as a standalone business could be materially impaired and we may need to cease operations.
Even though our Phase 3 CHIASMA OPTIMAL trial was conducted under a SPA agreed to with the FDA, we cannot guarantee that the design of, or data collected from, this trial or any of our clinical trials will be sufficient to support filing or approval of an NDA.
In the context of a Phase 3 clinical trial, the purpose of a SPA is to reach agreement with the FDA on the protocol design and size of the trial that may form the primary basis of an efficacy claim in support of an NDA. In requesting a SPA agreement, a sponsor asks focused questions on specific issues relating to the protocol, protocol design, study conduct, study goals and data analysis. However, according to regulatory guidance, a SPA agreement does not indicate FDA concurrence on every protocol detail. Absence of an FDA comment on a particular aspect of a trial does not necessarily indicate agreement if the sponsor did not specifically ask about that aspect. Moreover, a SPA is not a guarantee of approval, even if the trial is successful. A SPA is not binding on the FDA and may be rescinded if, for example, the FDA identifies a safety concern related to the product or its pharmacological class, if the FDA and the scientific community recognize a paradigm shift in disease diagnosis or management, if the relevant data, assumptions or information provided by the sponsor in the SPA submission are found to be false or misstated or omit relevant facts, or if the sponsor fails to follow the protocol that was agreed upon with the FDA. A SPA may be modified, as our SPA was in May 2018, with the written agreement of the FDA and the trial sponsor and, according to regulatory guidance, minor issues can be resolved through additional correspondence and protocol amendments after the trial begins. However, the FDA retains significant latitude and discretion in interpreting the terms of a SPA agreement, the significance of protocol amendments, and the data and results from the applicable clinical trial.
Further, the results from the CHIASMA OPTIMAL trial, a double-blind, placebo controlled clinical trial, may not be sufficiently robust to support the filing or approval of an NDA. In particular, the CHIASMA OPTIMAL trial has a relatively small sample size, 56 patients enrolled, and therefore the FDA has indicated that missing data, which might be only a few measurements, may raise questions about data quality and may, ultimately, invalidate the trial results. It should also be noted that the design of the CHIASMA OPTIMAL trial is different in important ways from the design of both our current MPOWERED clinical trial and our first completed Phase 3 clinical trial. For example, in contrast to our first completed Phase 3 clinical trial, which did not have a placebo arm, the CHIASMA OPTIMAL trial design called for the randomization of 50% of study patients to placebo capsules.
We anticipate that the FDA will review the totality of the data collected from the CHIASMA OPTIMAL trial, including both primary and secondary endpoints, including but not limited to data related to the loss of biochemical response when switching from injectable somatostatin analogs to octreotide capsules, together with certain data from our other clinical trials of octreotide capsules, in evaluating octreotide capsules treatment effect in any NDA and determining whether to grant approval. Therefore, our achievement of the primary endpoint, and all secondary endpoints in the CHIASMA OPTIMAL trial alone may not be sufficient to support approval. Not all endpoints measured in our clinical trials may be supportive of octreotide capsules’ efficacy or safety.
We also anticipate that the FDA will review whether the data collected from CHIASMA OPTIMAL and our other clinical trials are sufficiently robust to support the interpretability of these analyses, in determining whether to approve our NDA. Consequently, there can be no assurance that the data collected from the CHIASMA OPTIMAL trial will be sufficient to support approval of our NDA for the marketing and sale of octreotide capsules. If the data from CHIASMA OPTIMAL is insufficient to support approval of our NDA, our ability to continue as a standalone business could be materially impaired and we may need to cease operations.
We are substantially dependent on the regulatory approval and subsequent commercial success of octreotide capsules for the treatment of acromegaly in the United States, both of which may never occur or may be substantially delayed.
We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with no products approved by regulatory authorities or available for commercial sale. As a result, our potential to generate future revenues is currently dependent upon our ability to obtain regulatory approval and achieve commercial success of octreotide capsules for the treatment of acromegaly in the United States and European Union. Our receipt of a CRL from the FDA to our NDA for octreotide capsules and the requirement to conduct an additional Phase 3 clinical trial to address the concerns raised in the CRL has resulted, and will continue to result, in a significant delay in our ability to commercialize octreotide capsules in the United States, if we are ever able to obtain U.S. regulatory approval at all.
Even if we receive regulatory approval, the timing and success of the commercial launch of octreotide capsules in the United States is dependent upon a number of factors, including, but not limited to, hiring and retaining sales, marketing and other commercial personnel (especially since we terminated substantially all of our commercial personnel in June 2016), implementing internal systems and infrastructure in order to support a commercial sales organization and establish patient-focused programs, obtain pricing and
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