Albiglutide Does Not Prolong QTc Interval in Healthy Subjects: A Thorough ECG Study

Albiglutide, a selective once-weekly glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist, is being developed for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Albiglutide’s effect on cardiac repolarization (QTc interval) was assessed in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group study in healthy subjects with a nested crossover comparison for moxifloxacin.

Subjects were randomized to albiglutide (n = 85) or placebo (n = 89) and received injections of 30 mg albiglutide or placebo on Days 1 and 8 and 50 mg albiglutide or placebo on Days 15, 22, 29, and 36. In the placebo group, moxifloxacin was administered on Day −1 in half the subjects and on Day 40 in the other half. Blood samples for albiglutide plasma concentration were drawn on Days 4 and 39 and serial ECGs were extracted from continuous recordings on Days −2 (baseline), −1, 4, 39, and 40.

Demographics were generally similar between albiglutide and placebo subjects: mean age was 29 years and BMI 25 kg/m². Mean change-from-baseline QTcI (∆QTcI, which was corrected for individual heart rate) on Day 4 after a single dose of albiglutide 30 mg and on Day 39 after repeat dosing with albiglutide 50 mg once weekly was similar to the placebo response. The placebo-corrected ΔQTcI (ΔΔQTcI) on both albiglutide doses was small with the largest ΔΔQTcI of 1.1 ms (upper bound of 90% CI 3.8 ms) on Day 4 and −0.6 ms (upper bound of CI 1.8 ms) on Day 39. Moxifloxacin caused the largest mean effect on ΔΔQTcI of 10.9 ms and the lower bound of the CI was above 5 ms at all preselected timepoints, thereby demonstrating assay sensitivity. Albiglutide was well tolerated and there were no clinically relevant differences in safety data between albiglutide and placebo.

Albiglutide at doses up to 50 mg in healthy subjects did not prolong the QTc interval.