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CompletedNCT01148797CONTROL FMFUpdated Nov 18, 2016

Evaluate the Safety and Efficacy of Canakinumab in Pediatric Patients With Colchicine Intolerant or Colchicine Resistant Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF)

A Phase 2 interventional study of Canakinumab in Colchicine Resistant/Intolerant Familial Mediterranean Fever, sponsored by Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Completed at 5 sites in Israel. Open to participants aged 4 Years to 20 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2016-11-18.

Sponsored by Novartis Pharmaceuticals (part of Novartis) · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment

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Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
15
Allocation
Non-randomized
Ages
4 Years to 20 Years
Sex
All
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Study summary

A study designed to evaluate the role of treatment with a biological agent - Canakinumab in pediatric (age 4-20) Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF) patients that are intolerant or resistant for colchicine treatment.

The study hypothesis is that Canakinumab will reduce attack frequency and severity.

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Conditions studied

  • Colchicine Resistant/Intolerant Familial Mediterranean Fever

Keywords

  • FMF, Colchicine resistant
  • Colchicine intolerant
  • Flare rate
  • Canakinumab
03

In context

Familial Mediterranean Fever

61 studies on the registry are indexed under Familial Mediterranean Fever; 27 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 15 is below the median of 40 across 27 interventional studies indexed under Familial Mediterranean Fever.

Browse Familial Mediterranean Fever studies →

Lead sponsor

Novartis Pharmaceuticals is the lead sponsor of 2,718 studies on the registry; 221 are open to participants now.

Of its 585 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 438 (75%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
4 Years to 20 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  1. Male and female subjects between 4 and 20 years of age with active type 1 FMF disease (according to Tel-Hashomer Long criteria for diagnosis of FMF) and genetic confirmation of diagnosis (for the study - genetic confirmation is defined as either homozygous or compound heterozygous).
  2. Subjects must have type 1 disease characterized by recurrent and short episodes of inflammation and serositis, with an average of at least 3 well documented acute FMF attacks during the previous 3 months that are confirmed by the treating physician, lasting less then a week, and a minimum 14 day- attack free interval between attacks.
  3. Subjects must have received an adequate trial of colchicine, defined as treatment of at least 1-2 mg/d (based on subjects age) for at least 3 months, or an inability to tolerate colchicine due to adverse effects in a dose that controls acute attacks in the frequency of less than one attack per month.
  4. Subjects treated with anti-IL-1 therapies must complete washout and have experienced at least 2 attacks since (e.g. Anakinra: 3 day washout; Rilonacept: 4 week washout)
  5. Subjects treated with anti-TNF drugs must undergo appropriate . Prior to randomization, use of Etanercept must be discontinued for 4 weeks or use of Adalimumab or Infliximab must be discontinued for 8 weeks - a full list of washout periods for current treatments will be supplied
  6. If subject is a female of , she must agree to use adequate (adequate contraception can include abstinence) for the duration of the trial and 3 months after, and must have a negative serum or urine pregnancy test prior to administration of each dose of study medication.
  7. Subject's parent or legal guardian has provided written prior to screening for this study, or if subject is older than 18 years has provided informed consent him/herself.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Patients with end-organ dysfunction due to amyloidosis (e.g. existing proven amyloidosis or proteinuria > 0.5 gram per day)
  2. Subjects taking oral or IV within 1 month prior to baseline. Subjects taking steroids for reasons other than FMF - may be enrolled into the study based on discussion with the investigator and sponsor.
  3. Presence or history of any other inflammatory rheumatic disease
  4. The subject has active non-infective GI disease (e.g., inflammatory bowel disease), a chronic or acute renal or hepatic disorder, or a significant coagulation defect.
  5. The subject has an (SGOT), ALT (SGPT) or BUN >2 x or creatinine >1.5 mg/dL, and any other laboratory abnormality considered by the examining physician to be within 28 days before the Baseline visit.
  6. Positive PPD test (according to local guidance) where a latent or active TB infection cannot be excluded via QuantiFERON (T-Spot or radiographic imaging if needed) or via Chest x-ray.
  7. The subject has positive (HIV) status or current (acute or chronic) or C
  8. Subjects who are pregnant or lactating
  9. Presence of any active or chronic infection or any major episode of infection requiring hospitalization or treatment with i.v. antibiotics within 30 days or oral antibiotics within 14 days prior to screening
  10. , except for successfully excised squamous or basal cell carcinoma of the skin
  11. The subject has received any medication within 30 days before the first dose of study medication or is scheduled to receive an investigational drug, other than study medications described in this protocol, during the course of the study.
  12. The subject has received a within 3 months prior to the baseline visit.
  13. Any concurrent medical condition which would, in the investigator's opinion, compromise the subject's ability to tolerate the study drug or would make the subject unable to follow with the protocol.
  14. History of/or current psychiatric illness that would interfere with ability to comply with protocol requirements or provide .
  15. Subject has a history of alcohol or drug abuse within the past 6 months that would interfere with ability to comply with protocol requirements.

Other protocol-defined inclusion/exclusion criteria may apply

Terms in these criteria, in plain language(14)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Washout period

A planned gap after a treatment, so that its effects can lessen before the study treatment or a study assessment. Ask the study team and the doctor who prescribed it before changing any medicine.

Childbearing potential

Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).

Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

Biopsy and archival tissue

A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.

Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.

Corticosteroids (steroids)

Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.

Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.

ALT and AST (liver enzymes)

Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.

Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.

ULN (upper limit of normal)

The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.

“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.

Clinically significant

Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.

HIV

The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.

Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.

Hepatitis B tests

Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.

Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.

Cancer (malignancy)

Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.

Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.

Investigational drug or device

A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.

It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.

Live vaccines

Vaccines made with a weakened form of the germ, such as measles–mumps–rubella (MMR), chickenpox and yellow fever. They can be risky when the immune system is weakened. Flu injections are not live; the nasal flu spray is.

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Study design

Phase
Phase 2
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Non-randomized
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
15 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Canakinumab

    Drug: Canakinumab

Interventions

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. To measure the effect of canakinumab on the frequency of FMF attacks, defined as percentage of subjects with at least 50% reduction in the attack frequency during a 3 month treatment period

    Time frame: 0-3 months

Secondary outcomes

  1. To assess the effect of canakinumab with regard to percentage of subjects with no attacks during the 3 months treatment period

    Time frame: 0-3 months

  2. To evaluate the safety and tolerability of canakinumab by monitoring adverse events (AEs) and subject discontinuations due to an AE

    Time frame: 3 months

  3. To assess the change in frequency of FMF attacks during the treatment period

    Time frame: 3 months

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Study locations

5 sites
  • Rambam Health Care Campus
    Haifa, Israel
  • Shaare Zedek Medical Center
    Jerusalem, Israel
  • Meir Medical Center Kfar Saba
    Kfar Saba, Israel
  • Rabin Medical Center
    Petach Tikva, Israel
  • The Chaim Sheba Medical Center
    Ramat Gan, Israel
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Lidar M, Livneh A. Familial Mediterranean fever: clinical, molecular and management advancements. Neth J Med. 2007 Oct;65(9):318-24. PubMed 17954950 ↗
  • Bhat A, Naguwa SM, Gershwin ME. Genetics and new treatment modalities for familial Mediterranean fever. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2007 Sep;1110:201-8. doi: 10.1196/annals.1423.022. PubMed 17911435 ↗
  • Mor A, Shinar Y, Zaks N, Langevitz P, Chetrit A, Shtrasburg S, Rabinovitz E, Livneh A. Evaluation of disease severity in familial Mediterranean fever. Semin Arthritis Rheum. 2005 Aug;35(1):57-64. doi: 10.1016/j.semarthrit.2005.02.002. PubMed 16084225 ↗
  • Masters SL, Simon A, Aksentijevich I, Kastner DL. Horror autoinflammaticus: the molecular pathophysiology of autoinflammatory disease (*). Annu Rev Immunol. 2009;27:621-68. doi: 10.1146/annurev.immunol.25.022106.141627. PubMed 19302049 ↗
  • Soylemezoglu O, Arga M, Fidan K, Gonen S, Emeksiz HC, Hasanoglu E, Buyan N. Unresponsiveness to colchicine therapy in patients with familial Mediterranean fever homozygous for the M694V mutation. J Rheumatol. 2010 Jan;37(1):182-9. doi: 10.3899/jrheum.090273. Epub 2009 Dec 15. PubMed 20008920 ↗
  • Roldan R, Ruiz AM, Miranda MD, Collantes E. Anakinra: new therapeutic approach in children with Familial Mediterranean Fever resistant to colchicine. Joint Bone Spine. 2008 Jul;75(4):504-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jbspin.2008.04.001. Epub 2008 Jun 9. PubMed 18541452 ↗
  • Kuijk LM, Govers AM, Frenkel J, Hofhuis WJ. Effective treatment of a colchicine-resistant familial Mediterranean fever patient with anakinra. Ann Rheum Dis. 2007 Nov;66(11):1545-6. doi: 10.1136/ard.2007.071498. No abstract available. PubMed 17934085 ↗
  • Moser C, Pohl G, Haslinger I, Knapp S, Rowczenio D, Russel T, Lachmann HJ, Lang U, Kovarik J. Successful treatment of familial Mediterranean fever with Anakinra and outcome after renal transplantation. Nephrol Dial Transplant. 2009 Feb;24(2):676-8. doi: 10.1093/ndt/gfn646. Epub 2008 Nov 25. PubMed 19033248 ↗
  • Lachmann HJ, Kone-Paut I, Kuemmerle-Deschner JB, Leslie KS, Hachulla E, Quartier P, Gitton X, Widmer A, Patel N, Hawkins PN; Canakinumab in CAPS Study Group. Use of canakinumab in the cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome. N Engl J Med. 2009 Jun 4;360(23):2416-25. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa0810787. PubMed 19494217 ↗
  • Manuel O, Kumar D. QuantiFERON-TB Gold assay for the diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection. Expert Rev Mol Diagn. 2008 May;8(3):247-56. doi: 10.1586/14737159.8.3.247. PubMed 18598104 ↗
  • Brik R, Butbul-Aviel Y, Lubin S, Ben Dayan E, Rachmilewitz-Minei T, Tseng L, Hashkes PJ. Canakinumab for the treatment of children with colchicine-resistant familial Mediterranean fever: a 6-month open-label, single-arm pilot study. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2014 Nov;66(11):3241-3. doi: 10.1002/art.38777. No abstract available. PubMed 25049046 ↗
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Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
Not marked actual or estimatedDates not marked actual or estimated

The record gives a start of Dec 2010 and a primary completion of Feb 2012. It does not say whether these dates are actual or estimated.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Jun 21, 2010
First posted
Jun 22, 2010
Start
Dec 2010
Primary completionActual
Feb 2012
Last update
Nov 18, 2016
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Nov 18, 2016, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT01148797
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Jun 22, 2010
Start date
Dec 2010
Primary completion
Feb 2012
Last update
Nov 18, 2016

Study contacts

Eliad Ben Dayan
study chair · Novartis Pharmaceuticals
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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This study is completed, as verified in Nov 2016. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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