Simulations Plus, Inc. (Nasdaq: SLP), a leading provider of modeling and simulation software and services for pharmaceutical safety and efficacy, today announced that it has published important simulation results performed with the quantitative systems toxicology model, DILIsym^®, in the esteemed Toxicological Sciences journal (Oxford Academic Press). The results help explain the differentiation in liver safety between small molecule calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonists designed to treat migraine, a debilitating and important unmet medical need. Prior CGRP molecules, such as telcagepant, had failed due to liver injury. DILIsym predicted the safety of next-generation molecules, which have now proven their safety in the clinic. Rimegepant, for example, was approved for the preventative treatment of migraine by the FDA in the Spring of 2021.

Jeffrey Woodhead, Principal Scientist from Simulations Plus, is the first author of the publication entitled “Comparing the Liver Safety Profiles of 4 Next-Generation CGRP Receptor Antagonists to the Hepatotoxic CGRP Inhibitor Telcagepant Using Quantitative Systems Toxicology Modeling.” The results highlight why telcagepant failed in the clinic as well as why rimegepant, zavegepant, ubrogepant and atogepant are highly unlikely to face the same issues, providing confidence for drugmakers to move forward with their programs. The study was a collaboration between Simulations Plus and a pharmaceutical partner.

Brett Howell, President of the DILIsym Services division of Simulations Plus, said: “Drug developers and regulators often assume that once a molecule within a particular class of small molecules has shown liver injury, the entire class will be plagued with this issue. This is not the case, and this work published by Dr. Woodhead and others on the CGRPs clearly shows that DILIsym helps separate safe molecules that have huge positive impacts on patients from unsafe molecules that put volunteers and patients at risk. We are proud to have been a part of several CGRP programs, including rimegepant, ubrogepant, and atogepant, which have all been approved by the FDA after overwhelmingly safe clinical trials. We look forward to helping more companies make the right decisions about progressing versus terminating their candidates.”