MAGNET-lithium study discontinued after interim analysis

Funding from My Name’5 Doddie Foundation has been supporting the set-up and delivery of the MAGNET platform trial in the UK since 2021. The first sub-study within the trial was to test the repurposed drug, lithium carbonate, in people living with MND who have a particular mutation in the UNC13A gene. As part of the trial design, an interim analysis was performed to see whether there was evidence that the drug was working. 

Unfortunately, TRICALS has announced that the interim analysis of the Phase 3 study did not show any survival benefit, which was the primary outcome measure of the study. Because of this, the decision has been made to terminate the study and all participants have been asked to stop taking the drug immediately.

Leonard van den Berg, chairman of TRICALS and principal investigator of the study, said: “We would like to express our gratitude to all of the patients, their families, the funders, and the study teams who were involved in the study. We are grateful for the time, energy, and determination of all people involved in helping forward research towards finding a treatment for this terrible disease.”

Although this outcome is disappointing, there are things that we can take away from the results. This was the first clinical trial to target the UNC13A mutation, and therefore only recruited a small subset of people living with MND. Despite it being challenging, it was feasible. There is now proof that lithium is not beneficial for those with MND who have the UNC13A mutation. The learnings developed from this study will enable and encourage future trials targeting UNC13A. 

*In addition to My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, MAGNET is receiving support from MND Association (UK), Alan Davidson Foundation (UK), Dutch ALS Foundation (Netherlands), FWO with support of ALS Liga (Belgium), Ulla-Carin Lindquist stiftelse för ALS-forskning (Sweden), Thierry Latran Foundation (France), Fundación Luzón (Spain) and FightMND (Australia).