Circassia initiates phase III trial for cat allergy treatment
Imperial Innovations Group plc announced that its portfolio company, Circassia has initiated a pivotal large-scale phase III clinical study of its ToleroMune® cat allergy treatment.
Circassia’s phase III multinational study will test safety and efficacy of the ToleroMune® treatment in approximately 1,200 subjects from the United States, Canada and Europe. It follows positive phase II results published last month, which showed that patients had a significantly greater reduction in symptoms compared with placebo one year after the start of the study, despite only receiving a four-dose course of treatment over 12 weeks.
Allergic rhinoconjunctivitis (ARC) affects 30% of adults and 40% of children in developed countries, and the prevalence is rising. In Continental Europe and the US, cat-allergen induced ARC, for which the ToleroMune® cat allergy treatment is designed, is one of the commonest forms and affects 10-15% of those with ARC or asthma.
Circassia has successfully completed five investment rounds to date, raising a total of £105m for the development of a range of ToleroMune® allergy treatments based on an approach of using synthetic allergen-derived peptides to induce immune tolerance by generating regulatory T-cells that suppress allergic immune responses.
Circassia has now completed phase II studies with its four leading treatments for cat, grass, house dust mite and ragweed allergies validating the Company’s scientific approach. The cat allergy study is expected to complete in summer 2014.
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