Efficacy of immediate-release cysteamine bitartrate was demonstrated in open-label clinical trials of cysteamine hydrochloride and phosphocysteamine.

An open-label clinical trial of cysteamine hydrochloride was conducted in 94 pediatric patients (mainly from the United States) with nephropathic cystinosis. Patients were treated with increasing doses of cysteamine hydrochloride (mean dose 54 mg/kg per day) to attain WBC cystine concentrations of less than 2 nmol ½ cystine/mg protein 5 to 6 hours post-dose. The clinical outcomes were compared with a historical control group of 17 pediatric patients who had been in the placebo group of a randomized placebo-controlled trial of ascorbic acid. Cysteamine-treated patients had been diagnosed at a mean age of 22 months and had a mean age of 46 months old at study entry; placebo patients had been diagnosed at about 29 months and had a mean age of about 52 months old at trial entry. The principal measures of effectiveness were serum creatinine and calculated creatinine clearance and growth (height).

The average median WBC cystine concentration during treatment was 1.7 ± 0.2 nmol ½ cystine/mg protein. There were 70 cysteamine-treated patients with a baseline serum creatinine of less than 2 mg/dL who were followed for at least 1 year, and 17 placebo patients. Twelve of the 94 cysteamine-treated patients required early dialysis or renal transplant. Median follow-up of cysteamine patients was over 32 months, and 20% were followed more than 5 years. Median follow-up of the placebo group was 20 months; only 1 patient was followed more than 24 months. Glomerular function among cysteamine-treated patients was maintained over time. Placebo-treated patients experienced a gradual rise in serum creatinine. Renal tubular function was not affected by treatment.

Calculated creatinine clearances were evaluated for two groups of pediatric patients, one with poor WBC cystine depletion (defined as median WBC cystine concentrations greater than 3 nmol ½ cystine/mg protein or WBC cystine concentrations not measured at least 2 times per year) and one with good WBC cystine depletion. The final mean creatinine clearance of the good depletion group was 20.8 mL/min/1.73 m2 greater than the mean for the poor-depletion group.

Height-for-age measurements of treated patients were compared with height-for-age measurements of 143 patients initially screened for inclusion in the trial. Patients on treatment maintained growth (i.e., did not show increasing growth failure compared with normal scales) although growth velocity did not increase enough to allow patients to catch up to age norms for height.

In another open-label clinical trial, 46 patients who had completed the clinical trial of cysteamine hydrochloride (averaging 6.5 years of treatment) and 93 treatment naïve patients were treated with either cysteamine hydrochloride or phosphocysteamine (patient's choice). Patients had cystinosis diagnosed by elevated WBC cystine (mean 3.63 nmol ½ cystine/mg). Newly enrolled patients and the 46 continuing patients were required to have serum creatinine less than 3 mg/dL and 4 mg/dL, respectively. Patients were randomized to doses of 1.3 or 1.95 grams/m2 per day and stratified according to whether the serum creatinine was above 1.2 mg/dL or not. Doses could be raised if WBC cystine concentrations were approximately 2 nmol ½ cystine/mg protein and lowered due to intolerance. The mean age of the newly enrolled patients was about 49 months for the cysteamine group and about 34 months for the phosphocysteamine group. The mean age of the patients in the long-term follow-up group was about 9 years.

Mean doses were 1.27 grams/m2 per day and 1.87 grams/m2 per day in the two groups and WBC cystine concentrations averaged 1.72 ± 1.65 nmol ½ cystine/mg protein and 1.86 ± 0.92 nmol ½ cystine/mg protein in the 1.3 grams/m2 per day and 1.95 grams/m2 per day in the two groups, respectively. In new patients, serum creatinine was essentially unchanged over the period of follow-up (about half of the patients were followed for 24 months) and phosphocysteamine and cysteamine hydrochloride had similar effects. The long-term follow-up group also had essentially no change in renal function (almost 80% were followed at least 2 years). In four studies of patients with untreated cystinosis, renal death (need for transplant or dialysis) occurred at median age of less than 10 years. Both new patients and patients in the long-term follow-up group maintained height (although they did not catch up from baseline). There was no apparent difference in height maintenance between the two doses.