Safety and pharmacokinetic profile of pretomanid (PA-824) in healthy Chinese participants: Results of a phase I single dose escalation study

We investigated the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetic (PK) profile of pretomanid (formerly PA-824) in healthy Chinese volunteers. This was a single-center, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase I dose escalation study, in which healthy volunteers were consecutively allocated to increasing pretomanid dose groups (50, 100, 200, 400, 600, 800, or 1000 mg) and randomized to receive pretomanid or matching placebo. The primary objective was to evaluate the safety, tolerability and PK profile of pretomanid. In total, 306 volunteers were screened, and 60 were assigned to treatment (pretomanid: n=46, placebo: n=14) of whom 83.3% were male, age ranged from 19-39 years and BMI ranged from 19.2-25.9 kg/m2. At least one adverse event (AE) was reported by 67.4% of patients assigned to pretomanid and 50.0% of those who received placebo, there were no serious AEs or AEs leading to withdrawal. Drug-related events that occurred in ≥5% of participants assigned to pretomanid were proteinuria (26.1%), hematuria (15.2%), conjugated hyperbilirubinemia (6.5%), hyperbilirubinemia (6.5%) and elevated uric acid (6.5%). No relationship between pretomanid dose and AEs was observed. In the PK analysis (n=46), maximum pretomanid plasma concentration was reached in a mean of 4 hours in all dose groups except 800 mg (12 hours) and the plasma half-life ranged from 20.2-25.2 hours. No dose proportionality was observed for maximum plasma concentration, or area under the plasma concentration curve. In conclusion, single pretomanid doses from 50-1000 mg were well tolerated in healthy Chinese participants and the PK profile was generally consistent with findings in non-Chinese populations.