Conditions: Influenza
Keywords: influenza flu
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 344
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
This is a study for patients with flu who also have a fever as well as other flu symptoms. Patients must have had symptoms for less than 48 hours in order to participate. Patients will have two out of three chances of getting an active study treatment and the other third will receive a placebo (dummy drug). Nobody will know who gets the active drug and who gets the inactive drug. All patients will get supplies to treat symptoms of flu. Patients will need to be seen 5 more times after they are enrolled in the study.

Detailed description:
Peramivir is a neuraminidase inhibitor that was previously shown to be effective in the treatment of human experimental influenza using an oral formulation. Parenteral formulations of peramivir (for intramuscular and intravenous injection) entered clinical development at the time of this Phase 2 study. A series of Phase 1 studies in human volunteers was completed that provided safety and pharmacokinetic results that supported the initiation of this Phase 2 multinational, randomized, double-mask study that compared the antiviral efficacy and safety of peramivir administered intramuscularly versus placebo in adults with uncomplicated acute influenza. Because of the unique pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of peramivir - a long terminal half life in plasma and an extended duration of binding to the neuraminidase enzyme - subjects were randomized in a 1:1:1 ratio to receive a single dose of one of three treatments: peramivir 150 mg, peramivir 300 mg, and placebo. Study drug was administered as one 2-mL intramuscular injection in each gluteal muscle (total of 4 mL, injected in divided doses). This multinational study was originally to be conducted at approximately 80 sites in the US and Canada. When enrollment during the North American influenza season of 2006-2007 did not achieve the target, the study was extended to sites in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Hong Kong.

Arms:
arm 1: None arm 2: None arm 3: None

Interventions: intervention 1: Peramivir 150 mg intervention 2: Peramivir 300 mg intervention 3: Placebo
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Single dose administered as bilateral 2-mL intramuscular injections in each gluteal muscle (one injection of peramivir 150 mg and one injection of placebo). intervention 2: Single dose administered as bilateral 2-mL intramuscular injections in each gluteal muscle (2 injections of peramivir 150 mg). intervention 3: Single dose administered as bilateral 2-mL intramuscular injections in each gluteal muscle (2 injections of placebo).

Protocol document: