ClinicalTrials.gg
Not yet recruitingNCT07895966Updated Oct 26, 2026

Phase IIA Study of Belzutifan in EPAS1-, EGLN1-, or VHL-Mutant Erythrocytosis

A Phase 2 interventional study of Belzutifan in Erythrocytosis, Pulmonary Hypertension and Thrombosis, sponsored by University of Utah. Not yet recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-10-26.

Sponsored by University of Utah · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment

Updated Oct 26, 2026Newly registeredGo to Updates ↓
Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
16
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Some people develop erythrocytosis, a condition characterized by having too many red blood cells, because of inherited changes (mutations) in genes such as EPAS1, EGLN1, or VHL. These genes are involved in the body's oxygen-sensing pathway and can cause the body to produce excess red blood cells. High red blood cell counts can increase the risk of symptoms and complications, including headaches, blood clots, and cardiovascular problems.

This study will evaluate whether belzutifan, a medication that blocks the activity of HIF-2α, can reduce red blood cell production and improve blood counts in patients with erythrocytosis caused by these genetic mutations. Participants will receive belzutifan and undergo regular clinical assessments and laboratory testing to monitor treatment response and safety. The results of this study may provide a new targeted treatment option for patients with hereditary erythrocytosis caused by abnormalities in the oxygen-sensing pathway.

02

Conditions studied

  • Erythrocytosis
  • Pulmonary Hypertension
  • Thrombosis

Keywords

  • erythrocytosis
  • HIF
  • VHL
  • EGLN1
  • EPAS1
  • belzutifan
03

In context

Polycythemia

32 studies on the registry are indexed under Polycythemia; 12 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 16 is below the median of 67 across 22 interventional studies indexed under Polycythemia.

Browse Polycythemia studies →

Lead sponsor

University of Utah is the lead sponsor of 994 studies on the registry; 175 are open to participants now.

Of its 114 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 69 (61%) 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

  • 1. Male or female subject aged ≥ 18 years old with erythrocytosis (>18g/dL in male and Hb>16g/dL in a female>18 years old and Hb>0.5g/dL the for their age) with a known EPAS1, EGLN1, or VHL mutation 2. Neutrophils>1.5 k/uL, Hb>10g/dL, count >100x106 without transfusions 3. >30using Cockcroft Gault; total \<1.5x ULN (\<3xULN in patients with Gilbert's disease), and alkaline phosphatase\<2.5x ULN 4. Females or male patients with a female partner of must agree to effective methods of 5. Possible iron deficiency needs to be evaluated and if present, corrected. Then, baseline Hb level obtained at least after 4 weeks of correction of iron deficiency 6. Able to swallow oral medications 7. Have an (ECOG) performance score of 0 to 1 (refer to appendix). Evaluation of ECOG is to be performed within 10 days prior to the first dose of study intervention.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Any of the following:

    1. A pulse oximeter reading \<92% at rest, or
    2. Requires intermittent supplemental oxygen, or
    3. Requires chronic supplemental oxygen
  2. cardiac disease, including unstable angina, acute myocardial infarction ≤3 months from Day 1 of study drug administration, or Class III or IV congestive heart failure. Medically controlled arrhythmia stable on medication is permitted
  3. Moderate to severe hepatic impairment ( B or C)
  4. Received colony-stimulating factors (e.g., G-CSF, GM-CSF or recombinant EPO) ≤28 days prior to the first dose of study intervention
  5. Known psychiatric or substance abuse disorder that would interfere with cooperation with the requirements of the study
  6. Unable to swallow orally administered medication or has a gastrointestinal disorder affecting absorption (e.g., gastrectomy, partial bowel obstruction, malabsorption)
  7. Known or allergy to the active pharmaceutical ingredient or any component of the study intervention (belzutifan) formulations
  8. Received prior treatment with belzutifan or another HIF-2α inhibitor
  9. Received any type of small molecule kinase inhibitor (including kinase inhibitor) ≤5 half lives before [randomization/allocation]
  10. Major surgery ≤3 weeks prior to first dose of study intervention Note: Adequate wound healing after major surgery must be assessed clinically, independent of time elapsed for eligibility
  11. Is currently receiving either strong (phenobarbital, enzalutamide, phenytoin, rifampicin, rifabutin, rifapentine, carbamazepine, nevirapine and St John's Wort) or moderate (e.g., bosentan, efavirenz, modafinil) inducers of that cannot be discontinued for the duration of the study Note: A current list of strong/moderate inducers of CYP3A4 can be found at the following website: https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-interactions-labeling/drug-development-and-drug-interactions-table-substrates-inhibitors-and-inducers
  12. Is currently participating in a study of an investigational agent or is currently using an investigational device Note: Participants who have entered the follow-up phase of an investigational study may participate as long as it has been 4 weeks after the last dose of the previous investigational agent\
  13. Active infection requiring systemic therapy
  14. Active TB
  15. Diagnosis of immunodeficiency
  16. History or current evidence of any condition, therapy, or laboratory abnormality or other circumstance that might confound the results of the study, interfere with the participant's ability to cooperate with the requirements of the study, such that it is not in the best interest of the participant to participate, in the opinion of the treating investigator
  17. Has received therapeutic phlebotomy within 3 months of starting therapy
  18. Uncorrected iron deficiency
  19. Diagnosed with another form of erythrocytosis such as polycythemia vera, EPO or EPOR mutations, high oxygen affinity mutations, current smoking, testosterone use, untreated/unsupported heart or lung disease, Eisenmenger complex
  20. Pregnant
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.

Hemoglobin (Hb)

The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).

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.

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.

Creatinine clearance (CrCl)

How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.

Bilirubin

A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.

Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.

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.

ECOG performance status

A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.

0
Fully active, no restrictions.
1
Limited in strenuous activity, but walking and able to do light work, such as housework or office work.
2
Walking and able to look after yourself, but unable to work; up and about more than half of waking hours.
3
Able to look after yourself only in part; in bed or a chair more than half of waking hours.
4
Unable to look after yourself at all; in bed or a chair all day.

Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.

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.

NYHA class (heart failure)

The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.

I
No limits: ordinary activity causes no undue tiredness or breathlessness.
II
Slight limits: comfortable at rest, ordinary activity causes symptoms.
III
Marked limits: comfortable at rest, less than ordinary activity causes symptoms.
IV
Symptoms even at rest; any activity makes them worse.

Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.

Child-Pugh class

A score of how well the liver works in people with liver disease such as cirrhosis: class A is mild, B moderate and C severe.

Hypersensitivity

An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.

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.

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.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 2
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
16 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Belzutifan Treatment

    Drug: Belzutifan

Interventions

  • Belzutifan is an oral hypoxia-inducible factor 2 alpha (HIF-2α) inhibitor administered to patients with erythrocytosis caused by pathogenic mutations in EPAS1, EGLN1, or VHL. Treatment is intended to suppress abnormal HIF signaling and reduce excessive red blood cell production.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Normalization of hemoglobin

    Either normalizing Hb or lowering of patient Hb by at least 1.5g/dL from the patient's baseline by 12 weeks of therapy.

    Time frame: 12 weeks

Secondary outcomes

  1. Amelioration of prothrombotic milieu and pulmonary hypertension

    * Amelioration of prothrombotic milieu by normalization of transcripts of HIF regulated genes * Amelioration of pulmonary hypertension

    Time frame: 6 months

07

Study locations

1 site
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Jonasch E, Donskov F, Iliopoulos O, Rathmell WK, Narayan VK, Maughan BL, Oudard S, Else T, Maranchie JK, Welsh SJ, Thamake S, Park EK, Perini RF, Linehan WM, Srinivasan R; MK-6482-004 Investigators. Belzutifan for Renal Cell Carcinoma in von Hippel-Lindau Disease. N Engl J Med. 2021 Nov 25;385(22):2036-2046. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2103425. PubMed 34818478 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Undecided — De-identified individual participant data will not be made publicly available. Study findings will be reported in aggregate form through scientific presentations and publications.

09

Timeline

1 registry update since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Start is estimated for Oct 2026; primary completion for Sep 2028, 23 months later.

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

Registered
Oct 19, 2026
First posted
Oct 26, 2026
StartEst.
Oct 1, 2026
Primary completionEst.
Sep 30, 2028
CompletionEst.
Sep 30, 2028
Last update
Oct 26, 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.
Registered
First appeared on the registry. No changes since
Oct 26, 2026
Show all 1 update
  1. Oct 26, 2026
    First appeared on the registry

From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT07895966
Lead sponsor
University of Utah
Responsible party
Josef Prchal (Professor, University of Utah) — Principal investigator
First posted
Oct 26, 2026
Start date
Oct 1, 2026 (estimated)
Primary completion
Sep 30, 2028 (estimated)
Completion
Sep 30, 2028 (estimated)
Last update
Oct 26, 2026

Study contacts

Josef T. Prchal, MD
Contact
josef.prchal@hsc.utah.edu
801-585-0236
Jihyun Song, PhD
Contact
jihyun.song@utah.edu
801-587-4682
Josef T. Prchal, MD
principal investigator · University of Utah

Oversight

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 Sep 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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