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"Commencing this trial is a promising step in the clinical development ofMEDI-528, as preclinical data has suggested that blocking IL-9 may provideclinical benefit for patients with asthma," said Barbara White, vicepresident, clinical development, inflammatory disease. "We look forward tocontinuing to work with our network of collaborative researchers to discoverand assess novel pathologies and approaches to inflammatory diseases."
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The goal of this clinical trial is to assess the safety and tolerabilityof multiple fixed escalating doses of MEDI-528 in adult patients with stableasthma and exercise-induced bronchoconstriction. The study will also assessthe effect of the antibody on exercise challenge testing, as well as thepharmacokinetics and immunogenicity of the investigational treatment.Enrollment of this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial hascommenced at Northeast Medical Research Associates, Inc. and the study isexpected to expand to additional sites throughout the United States andCanada. Preliminary safety results from an ongoing Phase 2 trial support thecontinued development of the antibody in patients with mild-to-moderateasthma.
About Interleukin-9
IL-9 has been associated with symptoms of asthma. It is one of at least 29naturally occurring interleukins in the human body. Overexpression of IL-9 inanimal models has been shown to result in many features of asthma, includingincreased airway inflammation and hyperreactivity. Blocking the actions ofIL-9 has been shown to reduce the increased airway inflammation and airwayhyperresponsiveness seen in animal models of asthma. MedImmune is conductingresearch to evaluate the potential to use MAbs targeting IL-9 to treat orprevent symptomatic, moderate-to-severe, persistent asthma.
About Asthma
Asthma is a chronic disease of the airways that may cause wheezing,breathlessness, chest tightness and coughing. According to the U.S. Centersfor Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 30 million Americansreported having a history of asthma in 2003, including nine million children.About 20 million said they currently had asthma. In 2000, the CDC reportedthat there were more than 10 million asthma-related outpatient visits toprivate physician offices and hospital clinics. The National Institutes ofHealth (NIH) have estimated asthma-related healthcare costs in the U.S. at $14billion annually.
About MedImmune
MedImmune strives to provide better medicines to patients, new medicaloptions for physicians and rewarding careers to employees. Dedicated toadvancing science and medicine to help people live better lives, the companyis focused on cardiovascular/gastrointestinal disease, neuroscience, oncology,infection, respiratory disease and inflammation. With approximately 3,000employees worldwide and headquarters in Maryland, MedImmune is wholly owned byAstraZeneca plc (LSE: AZN.L, NYSE: AZN). For more information, visitMedImmune's website at http://www.medimmune.com.
SOURCE MedImmune
