Amarin, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on cardiovascular disease, reported positive, statistically significant results from its ANCHOR trial for the company's lead product candidate, AMR101.,  The trial was a multi-center, placebo-controlled, randomized, double-blind, 12-week pivotal study, that enrolled 702 patients.  The phase III trial met its primary and secondary efficacy endpoints for both the 4 gram and 2 gram daily doses.

The purpose of the ANCHOR trial was to demonstrate that AMR101 is effective in reducing triglyceride levels in patients with high triglycerides without increasing LDL-C ("bad cholesterol") levels in patients on background statin therapy.

The primary endpoint for triglyceride change was achieved at both 4 grams and 2 grams per day with median placebo-adjusted reductions in triglyceride levels of 21.5% and 10.1% for the 4 grams and 2 grams per day dose groups, respectively.  These reductions were both statistically significant (p

The trial's key secondary endpoint was to demonstrate a lack of elevation of LDL-C in order to avoid offset to the primary target of cholesterol lowering therapy. The trial's non-inferiority criterion for LDL-C was met at both AMR101 doses.  The upper confidence boundaries for both doses were below the pre-specified +6% LDL-C threshold limit.  In fact, at the 4 gram dose the upper confidence boundary was below zero (-1.7%) and at the 2 gram dose the upper confidence boundary was close to zero (0.05%). Moreover, for the 4 grams per day AMR101 group, LDL-C decreased significantly by 6.2% from baseline versus placebo, demonstrating superiority over placebo (p=0.0067). For the 2 grams per day group, LDL-C decreased by 3.6% from baseline versus placebo (p=0.0867).