Cymbalta Can't Beat Placebo In One Back Pain Study

Only days after news came out of one Lilly-run trial where its anti-depressant/Swiss Army knife of drugs performed weakly in a study of its efficacy in treating low back pain comes news now that a separate Lilly-run trial of Cymbalta for back pain found the drug in a dead heat with placebo. The first study, Lilly trumpeted with a press release. The second, Lilly was silent about. But someone at MedPage Today caught wind of it:

"The study reported at the Glasgow meeting involved 400 patients with chronic low back pain, randomized to 20, 60, or 120 mg of duloxetine or matching placebo.

"The primary outcome was the change in weekly mean of the 24-hour average pain score at 13 weeks, as assessed by mixed-effects models repeated measures. At the end of the study, no significant differences were observed between any of the duloxetine groups and placebo for the primary endpoint."

A tie with placebo sure isn't good news for Lilly, which is trying to get its blockbuster anti-depressant approved for the treatment of chronic pain.