Two Patient Deaths Force Vertex to Pause Diabetes Trial

Vertex Pharmaceuticals on Sunday reported that it had paused a Phase I/II study of its investigational islet cell therapy VX-880 in type 1 diabetes following two patient deaths.

In its announcement, the Boston, MA–based company said that the deaths were “unrelated” to the study treatment and that the study pause was “protocol-specified.” Global regulatory authorities and an independent data monitoring committee will review the “totality of the data” from this study.