The Effects of Colestilan Versus Placebo and Sevelamer in Patients with CKD 5D and Hyperphosphataemia: a 1-year Prospective Randomized Study

Background: This study compared the effects of short-term titrated colestilan (a novel non-absorbable, non-calcium, phosphate binder) with placebo, and evaluated the safety and efficacy of colestilan over 1 year compared with sevelamer, in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) 5D.

Methods: This prospective multicentre study comprised a 4-week phosphate binder washout period, a 16-week short-term, flexible-dose, treatment period (including a 4-week placebo-controlled withdrawal period) and a 40-week extension treatment phase.

Results: At Week 16 (the end of the 4-week placebo-controlled withdrawal period), serum phosphorus level was 0.43 mmol/L (1.32 mg/dL) lower with colestilan than placebo (P < 0.001; primary end point). Serum LDL-C level was also lower with colestilan than with placebo (P < 0.001). Both colestilan and sevelamer produced significant reductions from baseline in serum phosphorus levels (P < 0.001), maintained for 1 year, and the proportion of patients achieving target levels of ≤1.78 mmol/L (5.5 mg/dL) or ≤1.95 mmol/L (6.0 mg/dL) at study end were similar (65.3 and 73.3%, respectively, for colestilan, and 66.9 and 77.4%, respectively, for sevelamer). Serum calcium level remained stable in the colestilan group but tended to increase slightly in the sevelamer group (end-of-study increase of 0.035 mmol/L over baseline). Both binders produced similar reductions from baseline in LDL-C level (P < 0.001), and responder rates after 1 year, using a target of <1.83 mmol/L (70 mg/dL) or <2.59 mmol/L (100 mg/dL) were similar in both groups (50.7 and 85.3% for colestilan and 54.0 and 80.6% for sevelamer). Colestilan was generally well tolerated.

Conclusions: Colestilan is effective and safe for the treatment of hyperphosphataemia in patients with CKD 5D, and affords similar long-term phosphorus and cholesterol reductions/responder rates to sevelamer.