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Not yet recruitingNCT07817186Baby MERITUpdated Sep 14, 2026

Clinical Trial of a MEK Inhibitor for RASopathy-Associated Severe Infantile Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: Baby MERIT

A Phase 3 interventional study of Trametinib in HCM, Noonan Syndrome and Other Rasopathy and Heart Failure (Pediatric), sponsored by Carelon Research. Not yet recruiting. Open to participants aged 28 Days to 6 Months. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-09-14.

Sponsored by Carelon Research · Phase 3, Interventional, and Treatment

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Phase
Phase 3
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
25
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
28 Days to 6 Months
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This project seeks to perform a Phase 3 clinical trial to test whether an FDA-approved cancer drug called trametinib is effective in treating young infants with genetic conditions called RASopathies and a severe, life-threatening heart problem called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate that trametinib is effective in preventing these sick babies from dying, receiving a heart transplant or undergoing heart surgery to remove extra heart muscle over a one-year period. In addition, the investigators will determine how often this heart problem comes back when the trametinib treatment is stopped.

02

Conditions studied

  • HCM
  • Noonan Syndrome and Other Rasopathy
  • Heart Failure (Pediatric)

Keywords

  • Noonan Syndrome
  • RAS-HCM
  • RASopathy
  • Heart failure
  • trametinib
  • MEK inhibitor
03

In context

Noonan Syndrome

49 studies on the registry are indexed under Noonan Syndrome; 21 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 25 is below the median of 52 across 32 interventional studies indexed under Noonan Syndrome.

Browse Noonan Syndrome studies →

Lead sponsor

Carelon Research is the lead sponsor of 59 studies on the registry; 4 are open to participants now.

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

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
28 Days to 6 Months
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

  • Molecular genetic diagnosis of a RASopathy signaling through the RAS/MAPK pathway as identified by molecular assays performed in a Clinical Laboratory Improvements of 1988 (CLIA) or similarly certified laboratories. Qualifying genotypes will included variants in any gene causing Noonan, Costello or cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome curated as pathogenic or likely pathogenic and consistent with the genetic mechanism (i.e., one allele in genes acting in an autosomal dominant manner and two alleles in trans for the autosomal recessive form of LZTR1-related Noonan syndrome).
  • Diagnosis of HCM, as defined by LV and interventricular septal wall thickness with a z-score > 2 by echocardiography
  • Age ≥ 28 days and ≤ 6 months
  • Ross classification of HF of III or IV
  • Hospitalization
  • In the opinion of the site investigator, ability to comply with study protocol requirements
  • Signed for the trial by a parent or legal guardian

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • PTPN11 pathogenic/likely pathogenic variants causing NSML
  • Prior treatment with a MEK inhibitor
  • Requiring treatment with strong inhibitors of CYP2C19 and , strong inducers of CYP3A4, and substrates of CYP2C9 with a narrow therapeutic index
  • count \< 50,000/µL
  • Neoplastic disorder requiring treatment (e.g., juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia)
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.

CYP3A (CYP3A4) inhibitors and inducers

CYP3A is a group of enzymes, mainly CYP3A4, in the liver and gut that break down many medicines. Some medicines, supplements and foods (grapefruit, St John’s wort) slow them down or speed them up, which changes how much of a study drug stays in the body.

Studies list them so they can be avoided or switched; bring a list of everything you take, including supplements.

Platelets

Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 3
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
25 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Treatment

    Drug: Trametinib

Interventions

  • Participants will begin 0.025 mg/kg of oral trametinib once daily for up to 12 months. Dose will be adjusted for weight at each study visit. A 12-month surveillance phase follows cessation of treatment. If the participant experiences a RAS-HCM relapse during the surveillance phase, they will restart oral trametinib once daily for up to 12 additional months.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Time to first occurrence of death, heart transplantation, or LV septal myectomy to relieve LV outflow tract obstruction

    This is a composite time-to-event outcome. An event is defined as the first occurrence of any of the following: death, heart transplantation, or LV septal myectomy to relieve LV outflow tract obstruction. For participants experiencing more than one component event, only the first event contributes to the primary endpoint. Participants who do not experience any component event are censored according to the prespecified analysis rules. The treatment arms will be compared using Kaplan-Meier methods and the log-rank test.

    Time frame: From qualifying hospital admission through 12 months after the qualifying hospital admission

Secondary outcomes

  1. Time from qualifying hospital admission to death

    Time-to-event outcome defined as the time from the qualifying hospital admission to death from any cause. Participants who do not experience death during the assessment period will be censored according to the prespecified analysis rules. Treatment arms will be compared using Kaplan-Meier methods and the log-rank test.

    Time frame: From qualifying hospital admission through 12 months after the qualifying hospital admission

  2. Change from baseline in LV posterior wall thickness z-score at 12 months

    Change in LV posterior wall z-score from baseline to 12 months. The change is calculated as the 12-month LV posterior wall z-score minus the baseline LV posterior wall z-score. Treatment groups will be compared using ANCOVA with treatment group as a fixed factor and baseline z-score as a covariate. All measurements and z-scores performed centrally at the Boston Children's Hospital Echocardiography Core Lab.

    Time frame: Baseline and 12 months after qualifying hospital admission

  3. Ross class at 12 months

    Ross class is an ordinal measure with 4 categories (Class I-IV), with higher classes indicating greater severity of heart failure symptoms. Ross class at 12 months will be compared between the treatment arms using an ordinal regression model adjusted for baseline Ross class.

    Time frame: 12 months after qualifying hospital admission

  4. Change from baseline in log-transformed BNP at 12 months

    Change in log-transformed BNP from baseline to 12 months. The change is calculated as the 12-month value minus the baseline value. Treatment groups will be compared using ANCOVA with treatment group as a fixed factor and baseline log-transformed BNP/NT-proBN as a covariate.

    Time frame: Baseline and 12 months after qualifying hospital admission

  5. Time to first occurrence of death, heart transplantation, or LV septal myectomy to relieve LV outflow tract obstruction

    This is a composite time-to-event outcome. An event is defined as the first occurrence of any of the following: death, heart transplantation, or LV septal myectomy to relieve LV outflow tract obstruction. For participants experiencing more than one component event, only the first event contributes to the primary endpoint. Participants who do not experience any component event are censored according to the prespecified analysis rules. The treatment arms will be compared using Kaplan-Meier methods and the log-rank test.

    Time frame: From qualifying hospital admission through 24 months after the qualifying hospital admission

  6. Relapse-related (descriptive)

    frequency, timing, and nature of HCM relapse after trametinib cessation; echocardiographic and clinical factors at relapse; response of relapsed RAS-HCM to restarting trametinib over 12 months.

    Time frame: from hospitalization till 24 months of follow-up

  7. Trametinib-related adverse events

    type, severity (Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events \[CTCAE\] Grade), expectedness, and relationship of all AEs and SAEs to trametinib, with focused listings for dermatologic, ophthalmologic, and cardiac AEs

    Time frame: from hospitalization till 24 months of follow-up

07

Study locations

No study locations are listed for this record.

08

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Start is estimated for Aug 2027; primary completion for Jun 2032, 58 months later.

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

Registered
Aug 17, 2026
First posted
Sep 14, 2026
StartEst.
Aug 1, 2027
Primary completionEst.
Jun 30, 2032
CompletionEst.
Jun 30, 2032
Last update
Sep 14, 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 Sep 14, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT07817186
Lead sponsor
Carelon Research
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Sep 14, 2026
Start date
Aug 1, 2027 (estimated)
Primary completion
Jun 30, 2032 (estimated)
Completion
Jun 30, 2032 (estimated)
Last update
Sep 14, 2026

Oversight

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

Not currently enrolling

This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Jul 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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Discussion

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Studies of the drug tested here: Trametinib

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