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Implicit Bioscience's drug, oglufanide disodium, which works as aregulator of the body's immune response, is being given by intranasaladministration to patients with chronic hepatitis C viral infection.
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"The drugs currently in use fail to control this disease in about one halfof all patients," said Dr Ian Frazer, Implicit's Chief Scientific Officer. "Sothere is a compelling need for new and better therapies, and we hope thatoglufanide disodium may control or reverse the suppression of the immunesystem which the hepatitis virus uses to defeat our normally healthydefenses."
Dr Frazer is well known as the co-inventor of the recently approvedvaccine for papillomavirus, which is designed to prevent cervical cancer.
Dr William Sievert, who is the Principal Investigator for the trial,welcomed the opportunity to study the action of oglufanide disodium in hisbusy liver diseases clinic at the Monash Medical Centre, which is part of theSouthern Health network. "It is an important opportunity for patients to beinvolved in a new trial such as this, in which new treatment prospects areexplored."
Oglufanide disodium was originally developed to treat severe infectiousdisease in Russia (where it is a registered pharmaceutical), and wasextensively studied in cancer clinical trials in the United States beforebeing acquired by the privately-owned Brisbane biotech company ImplicitBioscience Pty Ltd in 2005.
The phase IIa trial of intranasal oglufanide disodium will complement theongoing phase Ib study of subcutaneously administered drug at the PrincessAlexandra Hospital in Brisbane.
Oglufanide disodium regulates the body's innate immune response to defeatinvading germs and cancer cells. The drug is also under development byImplicit as a biodefense therapy and for ovarian cancer.
SOURCE Implicit Bioscience, Inc.
