Well usually this thread stays away from BB companies, but I guess a $35m investment is enough to give them some credibility. Chronic urticaria is a nasty condition with no existing treatment (short of long-term steroids or immunosuppressives) and so this is something worth keeping an eye on. If only they would stay away from the "Theranostics" mumbo-jumbo.
Here's the description of the urticaria drug:
Biofrontera drug highly effective in severe chronic urticaria
March 30, 2004
Leverkusen, Germany - Biofrontera AG today announced that it obtained a positive interim report of its adaptive Phase II clinical trial for the treatment of severe chronic urticaria.
Biofrontera's lead product BF-Derm1, a histidine decarboxylase inhibitor, has strongly reduced the urticaria symptoms in the patients by 30-40 % on average with no relevant side effects. The placebo-controlled, multi-centre study was directed by Dr. Dr. Wolfgang Greb, CEO of Focus Clinical Drug Development GmbH.
Severe chronic urticaria is a highly disabling disease, which usually requires an extensive differential diagnosis and is often insufficiently susceptible to symptomatic therapies with antihistamines. “Given the severity and treatment resistance of the disease, we obtained substantial improvements after treatment with BF-Derm1, a compound with a new principle of action for treating severe urticaria. These results strongly confirm our opinion, that the drug should rapidly be developed and registered”, Prof. Dr. Hermann Lübbert, CEO of Biofrontera AG, commented the positive interim results.
The independent commission evaluating the interim results consisted of Prof. Hunzelmann, University of Cologne, Prof. Kramer, Focus Immunology Heidelberg, and Prof. Lehmacher, University of Cologne.
The commission strongly recommended the continuation of the study due to the excellent benefit risk ratio in this highly disabling disease. The study was accompanied by an extensive safety program, particularly relating to laboratory data, cardiovascular analyses and CNS-effects, in which the drug did not display any toxicity
Peter |
