Doxazosin (Page 4 of 6)

13 NONCLINICAL TOXICOLOGY

13.1 Carcinogenesis, Mutagenesis, Impairment of Fertility

Carcinogenesis and Mutagenesis: Chronic dietary administration (up to 24 months) of doxazosin mesylate at maximally tolerated doses of 40 mg/kg/day in rats and 120 mg/kg/day in mice revealed no evidence of carcinogenic potential. The highest doses evaluated in the rat and mouse studies are associated with AUCs (a measure of systemic exposure) that are 8 times and 4 times, respectively, the human AUC at a dose of 16 mg/day.

Mutagenicity studies revealed no drug-or metabolite-related effects at either chromosomal or subchromosomal levels.

Fertility in Males: Studies in rats showed reduced fertility in males treated with doxazosin at oral doses of 20 (but not 5 or 10) mg/kg/day, about 4 times the AUC exposures obtained with a 12 mg/day human dose. This effect was reversible within two weeks of drug withdrawal. There have been no reports of any effects of doxazosin on male fertility in humans.

13.2 Animal Toxicology and Pharmacology

An increased incidence of myocardial necrosis or fibrosis was observed in long-term (6 to 12 months) studies in rats and mice (exposure 8 times human AUC exposure in rats and somewhat equivalent to human C _max exposure in mice). Findings were not seen at lower doses. In dogs no cardiotoxicity was observed following 12 months of oral dosing at doses that resulted in maximum plasma concentrations (C _max ) 14 times the C _max exposure in humans receiving a 12 mg/day therapeutic dose or in Wistar rats at C _max exposures 15 times human C _max exposure. There is no evidence that similar lesions occur in humans.

14 CLINICAL STUDIES

14.1 Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH)

The efficacy of doxazosin was evaluated extensively in over 900 patients with BPH in double-blind, placebo-controlled trials. Doxazosin treatment was superior to placebo in improving patient symptoms and urinary flow rate. Significant relief with doxazosin was seen as early as one week into the treatment regimen, with doxazosin-treated patients (N=173) showing a significant (p<0.01) increase in maximum flow rate of 0.8 mL/sec compared to a decrease of 0.5 mL/sec in the placebo group (N=41). In long-term studies, improvement was maintained for up to 2 years of treatment. In 66 to 71% of patients, improvements above baseline were seen in both symptoms and maximum urinary flow rate.

In three placebo-controlled studies of 14 to 16 weeks’ duration, obstructive symptoms (hesitation, intermittency, dribbling, weak urinary stream, incomplete emptying of the bladder) and irritative symptoms (nocturia, daytime frequency, urgency, burning) of BPH were evaluated at each visit by patient-assessed symptom questionnaires. The bothersomeness of symptoms was measured with a modified Boyarsky questionnaire. Symptom severity/frequency was assessed using a modified Boyarsky questionnaire or an AUA-based questionnaire. Uroflowmetric evaluations were performed at times of peak (2 to 6 hours post-dose) and/or trough (24 hours post-dose) plasma concentrations of doxazosin.

The results from the three placebo-controlled studies (N=609) showing significant efficacy with 4 mg and 8 mg doxazosin are summarized in Table 3. In all three studies, doxazosin resulted in statistically significant relief of obstructive and irritative symptoms compared to placebo. Statistically significant improvements of 2.3 to 3.3 mL/sec in maximum flow rate were seen with doxazosin in Studies 1 and 2, compared to 0.1 to 0.7 mL/sec with placebo.

In one fixed-dose study (Study 2), doxazosin therapy (4 mg to 8 mg, once daily) resulted in a significant and sustained improvement in maximum urinary flow rate of 2.3 to 3.3 mL/sec (Table 3) compared to placebo (0.1 mL/sec). In this study, the only study in which weekly evaluations were made, significant improvement with doxazosin vs. placebo was seen after one week. The proportion of patients who responded with a maximum flow rate improvement of ≥3 mL/sec was significantly larger with doxazosin (34 to 42%) than placebo (13 to 17%). A significantly greater improvement was also seen in average flow rate with doxazosin (1.6 mL/sec) than with placebo (0.2 mL/sec). The onset and time course of symptom relief and increased urinary flow from Study 1 are illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1 – Study 1

14.2 Hypertension

In a pooled analysis of placebo-controlled hypertension studies with about 300 hypertensive patients per treatment group, doxazosin, at doses of 1 mg to 16 mg given once daily, lowered blood pressure at 24 hours by about 10/8 mmHg compared to placebo in the standing position and about 9/5 mmHg in the supine position. Peak blood pressure effects (1 to 6 hours) were larger by about 50 to 75% (i.e., trough values were about 55 to 70% of peak effect), with the larger peak-trough differences seen in systolic pressures. There was no apparent difference in the blood pressure response of Caucasians and blacks or of patients above and below age 65. In the same patient population, patients receiving doxazosin gained a mean of 0.6 kg compared to a mean loss of 0.1 kg for placebo patients.

TABLE 4

Mean Changes in Blood Pressure from Baseline to the Mean of the Final Efficacy Phase in Normotensives (Diastolic BP <90 mmHg) in Two Double-blind, Placebo-controlled U.S. Studies with Doxazosin 1 mg to 8 mg once daily.

	PLACEBO (N=85)		DOXAZOSIN (N=183)
Sitting BP (mmHg)	Baseline	Chang e	Baseline	Change
Systolic	128.4	–1.4	128.8	–4.9*
Diastolic	79.2	–1.2	79.6	–2.4*
Standing BP (mmHg)	Baseline	Change	Baseline	Change
Systolic	128.5	–0.6	128.5	–5.3*
Diastolic	80.5	–0.7	80.4	–2.6*
*p ≤ 0.05 compared to placebo