ClinicalTrials.gg
WithdrawnNCT06176794Updated Apr 27, 2026

Immediate Release Torsemide Versus Extended Release Torsemide After Salty Meal

A Phase 2 interventional study of Immediate release torsemide 20mg tablet and Extended release torsemide 24mg tablet in Heart Failure, sponsored by Sarfez Pharmaceuticals, Inc.. Withdrawn at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-04-27.

Sponsored by Sarfez Pharmaceuticals, Inc. · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment

Why this study was withdrawn
Recruitment issues.
Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
0
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The goal of this randomized double-blind crossover study is to assess whether a morning dose of the extended release torsemide has a better efficacy than the ordinary immediate release torsemide to induce renal sodium excretion after a salty lunch in patients with stable heart failure. The main questions it aims to answer are:

  • Are the amounts of excreted sodium in the urine during the 2- and 6-hours' time period after a morning dose of extended release torsemide different from the amounts after the immediate release torsemide.
  • Are the amounts of excreted sodium in the urine during the 2- and 6-hours' time period after a salty lunch, which will be consumed approximately 6 hours following a morning dose of extended release torsemide, different from the amounts after the immediate release torsemide.
  • Is the amount of excreted sodium in the urine during the 24 hours' time period after a salty lunch, which will be consumed approximately 6 hours following a morning dose of extended release torsemide, different from the amount after the immediate release torsemide.

Participants will be asked to:

  • Start taking daily immediate release or extended release torsemide tablets that is provided to them.
  • Eat the meals with standard contents of sodium that is provided to them and avoid other meals, drinks (except for water) and snacks for the duration of the study.
  • Collect urine for 24 hours, after approximately one week of the initiation of the study medication.
  • Go to the clinical research center the day that the 24-hour urine collection is finished and stay there throughout the day to receive standard meals and to have blood and urine samples collected.
  • Switch torsemide pills to the new one that will be dispensed to them at the clinical research center. If they were taking the immediate release torsemide during the first part, then they will be given the sustained release torsemide and vice versa. The study is double blind; therefore, the subjects, study coordinators, and investigators are unaware of whether each subject is on immediate release torsemide first or on extended release torsemide first.
  • Collect urine for an additional 12 hours after leaving the clinical research center to be sent to the clinical research center the next morning.
  • Continue to take the provided meals and to avoid other meals, drinks (except for water) and snacks.
  • Again, collect urine for 24 hours, after approximately one week, take that to the clinical research center when the 24-hour collection is completed and stay there throughout the day to receive standard meals and to have blood and urine samples collected.
  • Collect urine for an additional 12 hours to be sent to the clinical research center the next morning.

Researchers will compare the amount of sodium excretion when each subject is taking immediate release torsemide versus the time that the same subject is taking extended release torsemide.

Read the detailed description

Sarfez Inc has developed an extended release formulation of torsemide, whose effect lasts for several hours after the dosing. The purpose of this study is to assess whether a morning dose of the extended release torsemide has a better efficacy than the ordinary immediate release torsemide to induce renal sodium excretion after a salty lunch.

This is a randomized double-blind crossover study of the patients with stable heart failure, who are on a stable dose of a loop diuretic. During the study period, the participants' loop diuretics will be replaced by the equivalent dose of immediate release/extended release torsemide and they will receive standardized meals throughout the study period. After a "week" of taking a morning dose of each of the two torsemide formulations, serial urinary sodium measurements following a salty lunch will be compared between the time that the subject was taking the immediate release vs. the time period that the subject was taking the extended release torsemide as a single morning dose.

02

Conditions studied

  • Heart Failure

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03

In context

Heart Failure

6,331 studies on the registry are indexed under Heart Failure; 1,396 are open to participants now.

Browse Heart Failure studies →

Lead sponsor

Sarfez Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is the lead sponsor of 11 studies on the registry; none are open to participants now.

Of its 7 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 0 (0%) have results posted.

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

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
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

  • Man or woman over the age of 18 years.
  • Willing and able to sign the .
  • A clinical diagnosis of chronic HF that is considered by patient's cardiologist/physician to be stable over the one-month period prior to randomization.
  • Receiving a stable dose of furosemide of 40mg or 80mg total per day (or equivalent doses of torsemide or bumetanide) for at least 30 days prior to randomization.
  • Optimum volume status determined by experienced physician.
  • Able to consume a diet containing approximately 3 grams of Na+ daily.
  • No anticipated changes in HF medications during the study period.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Requirement for a diuretic other than furosemide, bumetanide or torsemide except for spironolactone, eplerenone, finerenone, or SGLT2 inhibitors, given in stable dose for > 2 weeks before randomization and during the study.
  • Known non-adherence to medication intake or salt restriction.
  • Myocardial infarction, stroke, , acute kidney injury or acute HF requiring admission to hospital within the last 30 days prior to randomization.
  • Severe / symptomatic lung disease or respiratory symptoms distinct from HF.
  • Urinary incontinence or inability to empty bladder with a post-void residual volume >100 ml.
  • Uncontrolled diabetes mellitus or uncontrolled hypertension.
  • Estimated \< 30 ml/min/1.72m2 of body surface area.
  • Use of any non-loop diuretic in the last 30 days prior to randomization, with the exception of a low dose MRA (e.g., spironolactone of 25-50 mg per day) or an SGLT2 inhibitor.
  • History of flash pulmonary edema or amyloid cardiomyopathy.
  • Requirement for a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug other than low dose aspirin (\<200 mg daily)
  • Refusal or inability to sign the .
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(3)

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.

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.

TIA (transient ischaemic attack)

A “mini-stroke”: temporary stroke-like symptoms caused by reduced blood flow to part of the brain, spinal cord or eye, without signs of a new stroke on a scan.

Stroke symptoms need emergency care at once, even if they go away.

GFR and eGFR (kidney filtering)

GFR (glomerular filtration rate) is how much blood the kidneys filter each minute. It is usually estimated from a blood test — eGFR, by formulas such as CKD-EPI or MDRD — and some studies ask for it to be measured directly instead. Usually given in mL/min/1.73 m².

Check the method, the units and the minimum the study states. A value of 90 or above is in the normal-or-high range, but kidney damage can show in other tests too.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 2
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Crossover assignment
Masking
Quadruple (Participant, Care provider, Investigator, Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
0 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Extended release torsemide

    Drug: Immediate release torsemide 20mg tablet · Drug: Extended release torsemide 24mg tablet

  • Active comparator
    Immediate release torsemide

    Drug: Immediate release torsemide 20mg tablet · Drug: Extended release torsemide 24mg tablet

Interventions

  • DrugImmediate release torsemide 20mg tablet

    Subjects will receive approximately one week of daily immediate release 20mg torsemide (plus daily placebo of 24mg extended release torsemide) and one week of daily extended release 24mg torsemide (plus daily placebo of 20mg immediate release torsemide) with no gap in between. Subjects will be randomly assigned to immediate-release torsemide-first arm versus extended-release torsemide-first arm and at the end of the initial one-week period, they will be switched to the other intervention. Subjects will consume only the provided meals with standardized amount of sodium content throughout the study period.

  • DrugExtended release torsemide 24mg tablet

    Subjects will receive approximately one week of daily immediate release 20mg torsemide (plus daily placebo of 24mg extended release torsemide) and one week of daily extended release 24mg torsemide (plus daily placebo of 20mg immediate release torsemide) with no gap in between. Subjects will be randomly assigned to immediate-release torsemide-first arm versus extended-release torsemide-first arm and at the end of the initial one-week period, they will be switched to the other intervention. Subjects will consume only the provided meals with standardized amount of sodium content throughout the study period.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Cumulative Na+ excretion over 6 hours

    The primary outcome is the cumulative Na+ excretion over 6 hours after lunch.

    Time frame: 6 hours after lunch

Secondary outcomes

  1. Fluid and Na+ excretion over the 6 hours

    Fluid and Na+ excretion over the 6 hours after breakfast, 6 hours after lunch, and 24 hours after dosing.

    Time frame: 6 hours after breakfast, 6 hours after lunch, and 24 hours

  2. creatinine clearance

    Safety outcome

    Time frame: While in the study (approximately 2 weeks)

  3. K+ excretion

    Safety outcome

    Time frame: While in the study (approximately 2 weeks)

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Division of Nephrology, Hypertension & Renal Transplantation, University of Florida
    Gainesville, Florida 32610, United States
08

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Ran from Nov 2024 to primary completion in Mar 2025, 4 months.

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

Registered
Dec 11, 2023
First posted
Dec 20, 2023
StartActual
Nov 15, 2024
Primary completionActual
Mar 25, 2025
CompletionActual
Mar 25, 2025
Last update
Apr 27, 2026
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.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
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 Apr 27, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT06176794
Lead sponsor
Sarfez Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Dec 20, 2023
Start date
Nov 15, 2024
Primary completion
Mar 25, 2025
Completion
Mar 25, 2025
Last update
Apr 27, 2026

Study contacts

Parta Hatamizadeh, MD, MPH
principal investigator · University of Florida

Oversight

FDA-regulated drug
Yes
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is withdrawn, as verified in Apr 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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