Gout is an old-fashioned-sounding disease that many associate with aging. It is, however, a painful condition affecting 8.3 million people in the U.S., a minority of which achieve satisfactory treatment with the market-leading product, allopurinol, for reducing serum uric acid (sUA) levels. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s new Phase IIb top-line data showed that combining its investigational purine nucleoside phosphorlylate inhibitor, BCX4208, with a 300-mg dose of allopurinol could double the number of patients who achieve normal sUA levels. In the randomized, double-blinded, dose-response study, BCX4208 plus allopurinol was superior to allopurinol alone in patients with gout who had failed allopurinol alone.