New treatment for painful skin disease step closer

Media release
1 August 2007

New drug for treatment of painful skin disease a step closer

A drug developed in New Zealand by Industrial Research Ltd (IRL) for the treatment of the chronic and painful skin disease psoriasis, will shortly be trialled on sufferers in the United States by pharmaceutical giant Roche.

IRL developed the drug, BCX-4208, in partnership with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the United States. Using revolutionary technology, the researchers designed a new range of drugs, potent enzyme inhibitors, that can be used to treat many problems caused by an over-active immune system such as psoriasis.

"We licensed our drug to US company BioCryst, who have partnered with Roche to develop and commercialise BCX-4208, and it is exciting to see it progress to Phase II trials on psoriasis sufferers," said Dr Gary Evans, Senior Research Scientist, Industrial Research.

"Trials and testing of new drugs is a long and complicated process, but this trial moves the drug a big step closer to being available to help people with this autoimmune disease."

The upcoming study will involve 60 patients with moderate to severe psoriasis in a double-blind, placebo-controlled randomised trial over six weeks. If successful the next step in the process will be to expand the trial to include a larger number of patients.

Psoriasis affects nearly 125 million people around the world and at the moment corticosteroids are the main form of treatment. However there are problems associated with the long term use of steroids that need to be considered when treating this condition.

Instead of just treating the symptoms, BCX-4208 inhibits the production of T-cells in the blood. Psoriasis occurs when faulty signals in the immune system mistakenly activate T-cells into faster-than-normal regeneration of skin cells which results in patches of thick, red skin which can cause significant physical discomfort.

BCX-4208 and related cancer-treatment drug Fodosine have been developed out of IRL's glycotherapeutic programme, which was recently endorsed with funding approved by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology of $25 million over the next ten years. This ongoing programme is responsible for the discovery of a number of other new drugs for the treatment of malaria, bacterial infections and cancers which are currently in pre-clinical trials.

As a result of the patent held on these drugs, IRL may receive certain per-commercial milestone payments as the drugs progress successfully through clinical trials, as well as payments from products sales if such drugs obtain market approval.

ENDS

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