AVANIR's Novel Orally Active Asthma/Allergy Drug Candidate Subject of Journal Article
Thursday December 16, 10:55 am ET
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 16, 2004--AVANIR Pharmaceuticals (AMEX:AVN - News) announced that an article profiling its orally active experimental drug, AVP 13358, was published today in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (J Med Chem V-47 #26: pp.6451-6454). The article, entitled "Novel 2-(Substituted phenyl) Benzimidazole Derivatives with Potent Activity Against IgE, Cytokines, and CD23 for the Treatment of Allergy and Asthma," describes the novel compound and its activity against critical targets in the allergy cascade.
AVANIR's allergy/asthma research resulted in a series of orally active compounds that suppress experimental asthma in animal models, while mitigating biomarkers of the disease such as serum IgE, airway levels of IL-4, IL-5, eosinophils, and lymphocytes, and the expression of CD23 on leukocytes. The compounds are unique in structure and apparent mechanism and appear to act on a target critical to the function of several intermediaries in the allergic response.
"Identification of AVP 13358 and its analogs started with the premise that IgE is the hallmark of allergy and asthma. Therefore, a compound that down-regulates the IgE response should be beneficial in treating these conditions," stated Jagadish Sircar, Ph.D., Vice President of Drug Discovery at AVANIR Pharmaceuticals. "The reported efficacy of the injectable anti-IgE antibody omalizumab (Xolair) has validated IgE as an important target for the treatment of allergic diseases."
AVANIR successfully completed an initial Phase I clinical trial with AVP 13358 earlier this year. Results of the trial reported in May 2004 indicate that AVP 13358 was well-tolerated at all single rising doses administered to healthy volunteers in the study. |
