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Thorough QT Study on the Effect of Therapeutic and Supratherapeutic Dosing of Givinostat in Healthy Volunteers

Mercuri E, Byrne B, Willis T, Bourke J, Bettica P, Cazzaniga S, Xue H, Darpo B

Clinical pharmacology in drug development, 2026

Abstract

Givinostat is a class I/II histone deacetylase inhibitor indicated for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The study evaluated the effect of therapeutic and supratherapeutic givinostat doses on the QT/QTc interval. Healthy volunteers received each treatment-givinostat hydrochloride monohydrate oral suspension as a therapeutic (100 mg) or supratherapeutic (300 mg) dose, placebo oral suspension, or moxifloxacin oral tablet (positive control, 400 mg)-according to a block randomization scheme. Cardiodynamic assessments were paired with pharmacokinetic samples. A small, clinically non-relevant effect on mean placebo-corrected, change-from-baseline QTcF (∆∆QTcF) of 5.5 ms was seen after givinostat 100-mg dose. Clinically relevant QTc prolongation was observed with the supratherapeutic dose, with a mild ∆∆QTcF increase of 13.6 ms. A delay of ≈3 h between Tmax and the largest effect on the QTc interval was seen for both doses. In the concentration-QTc analysis, an Emax model captured the data better than the prespecified linear model and showed that an effect on ∆∆QTcF exceeding 10 ms could be excluded within the full range of observed givinostat concentrations in this study and up to ≈745 ng/mL. Givinostat at the maximum labeled dose (up to 53.2 mg twice daily for DMD) is not expected to pose a QT prolongation risk.

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Evidence Hub reads this as a randomized trial, done in people. Its evidence level is 2 of 5 (High · randomized trial). Randomized trials of a reasonable size are the strongest single-study design.

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