Acasti Pharma Submits Statistical Analysis Plan to FDA and Remains On Track to Report TRILOGY 2 Topline Data On or About August 31, 2020

LAVAL, Québec, July 31, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Acasti Pharma Inc. (“Acasti or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: ACST – TSX-V: ACST), a biopharmaceutical innovator focused on the research, development and commercialization of its prescription drug candidate CaPre® (omega-3 phospholipid) for the treatment of severe hypertriglyceridemia (sHTG) (triglyceride blood levels from 500 mg/dL to 1500 mg/dL), today announced it has completed its revisions to the pre-specified Statistical Analysis Plan (SAP) for the TRILOGY 2 Phase 3 trial of CaPre, and has filed it with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
As previously disclosed, the Company, along with the academic Principal Investigator (PI) of the study, Dariush Mozaffarian M.D., Dr.P.H., and external clinical and statistical experts, conducted rigorous post-hoc analysis of TRILOGY 1 data. Analysis of the TRILOGY 1 data revealed a rapid, significant and sustained reduction in TG levels between screening (during qualification) and the time of patient randomization (prior to patients starting on either drug or placebo), which Acasti refers to as “Pre-randomization Triglyceride (TG) Normalization.” This artefactual phenomenon affected both treatment groups, but was much greater in the placebo group, resulting in the large placebo effect and significant underestimation of the post-randomization treatment effect of the active drug, CaPre.  The post-hoc analyses of the primary endpoint using a revised, single point baseline value from Week 0 (Visit 4) corrected for a significant amount of the pre-randomization TG reduction in subjects that were most affected by the normalization phenomenon, and a meaningful efficacy trend for CaPre was observed.The Company provided all of the TRILOGY 1 background information and accompanying data to the FDA in a Type C briefing package, which was filed on April 29, 2020. As previously disclosed, the FDA provided Acasti with a written response to its Type C Meeting request and briefing package, and confirmed that it will require pivotal efficacy analyses for TRILOGY 2 to be performed on the full Intent to Treat (ITT) population, as contemplated in the original Statistical Analysis Plan (SAP), and they supported the conduct of post-hoc analyses in TRILOGY 1 for exploratory purposes. Based on the FDA’s feedback and input from key experts including Dr. Mozaffarian, Acasti finalized the Statistical Analysis Plan (SAP) for TRILOGY 2 and has now submitted it to the FDA. The Company remains blinded to the TRILOGY 2 data, and remains on track to report topline TG data on or about August 31, 2020. The key secondary and exploratory endpoints from both TRILOGY 1 and TRILOGY 2 trials, and pooled results from both studies, are still expected within several weeks following the unblinding of TRILOGY 2 results. Acasti also announced it plans to host a conference call on or about August 31, 2020 to discuss the TRILOGY 2 topline results, as well as to provide an update on the timing for the reporting of the secondary and exploratory endpoints, and the pooled results from both TRILOGY studies. For this reason, the Company does not plan to host its usual quarterly conference call to discuss the financial results for the first fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2020, but expects to report and file its first fiscal quarter 2021 financial results on August 13, 2020.About CaPre (omega-3 phospholipid)