Xermelo is indicated for the treatment of carcinoid syndrome diarrhea in combination with somatostatin analog (SSA) therapy in adults inadequately controlled by SSA therapy.

The recommended dosage of Xermelo in adult patients is 250 mg three times daily for patients whose diarrhea is inadequately controlled by SSA therapy.

Tablets: 250 mg telotristat ethyl; white to off-white, coated and oval with “T-E” debossed on one side and “250” debossed on the other side.

Xermelo (telotristat ethyl) tablets contain telotristat ethyl as telotristat etiprate, a tryptophan hydroxylase inhibitor. Telotristat etiprate is the hippurate salt of telotristat ethyl [(S)-ethyl 2-amino-3-(4-(2-amino-6-((R)-1-(4-chloro-2-(3-methyl-1H-pyrazol-1-yl)phenyl)-2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy)pyrimidin-4-yl)phenyl)propanoate], which undergoes hydrolysis to the active metabolite, (S)-2-amino-3-(4-(2-amino-6-((R)-1-(4-chloro-2-(3-methyl-1H-pyrazol-1-yl)phenyl)-2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy)pyrimidin-4-yl)phenyl)propanoic acid.

The molecular formula of telotristat etiprate is C

Telotristat etiprate is a white to off-white solid. The solubility is a function of pH at 25°C; at pH 1 (0.1N HCl), the solubility is greater than 71 mg/mL, at pH 3 phosphate buffer, the solubility is 0.30 mg/mL, at a pH of 5 to 9, the solubility is negligible. In organic solvents, telotristat etiprate is freely soluble in methanol, soluble in acetone, and sparingly soluble in ethanol.

Each Xermelo tablet contains 250 mg of telotristat ethyl (free base) which is equivalent to 328 mg telotristat etiprate. The inactive ingredients of Xermelo tablets include: colloidal silicon dioxide, croscarmellose sodium, hydroxypropyl cellulose, lactose anhydrous, macrogol/PEG, magnesium stearate, polyvinyl alcohol [part hydrolyzed], talc and titanium dioxide.

A 12-week double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, multicenter trial of Xermelo was conducted in adult patients with a well-differentiated metastatic neuroendocrine tumor and carcinoid syndrome diarrhea who were having between 4 to 12 daily bowel movements despite the use of SSA therapy at a stable dose for at least 3 months. Patients were randomized to placebo or treatment with Xermelo 250 mg three times daily.

Study medication was administered within 15 minutes before or within 1 hour after a meal or snack

The primary efficacy endpoint was the change from baseline in the number of daily bowel movements averaged over the 12-week treatment period. The analysis results can be found in

In the 12-week study, a difference in average weekly reductions in bowel movement frequency between Xermelo and placebo was observed as early as 1 to 3 weeks, and persisted for the remaining 9 weeks of the study.

To aid in the interpretation of the bowel movement reduction results, the proportion of patients reporting any particular level of reduction in overall average bowel movement frequency is depicted in Figure 1 below. For example, 33% of patients randomized to Xermelo and 4% of patients randomized to placebo experienced a reduction in overall average bowel movements from baseline of at least 2 bowel movements per day.

Other symptoms of carcinoid syndrome (abdominal pain or flushing) did not show improvement in the comparison of Xermelo to placebo.

The average number of daily short-acting octreotide injections used for rescue therapy over the 12-week double-blind treatment period was 0.3 and 0.7 in the Xermelo and placebo groups, respectively. In the subgroup of patients who received short-acting octreotide injections, observed reductions in the number of bowel movements per day and treatment differences were generally consistent with the reductions and differences observed in patients who did not receive rescue therapy, and were similar to the overall data presented in

A third randomized treatment arm of Xermelo 500 mg three times daily did not demonstrate additional treatment benefit on the primary endpoint and had a greater incidence of adverse reactions than Xermelo 250 mg three times daily.  Therefore, Xermelo 500 mg three times daily is not recommended

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