Inflazyme Pharmaceuticals has selected a compound that it plans to study as a potential new treatment for organ rejection and psoriasis.
The compound, called IPL423,323, "has demonstrated in animal models that it is as effective as cyclosporine," the biopharmaceutical company said on September 23.
Preliminary data suggest that the compound "may be effective in the prevention of organ transplant rejection without being globally immunosuppressive. A drug having the ability to selectively inhibit cells responsible for rejection and providing efficacy comparable to cyclosporine would be a major breakthrough," said Dr. Stephen Chung, a transplant surgeon at Vancouver Hospital and Health Sciences Center who is helping Inflazyme study the compound.
According to the company, animal studies found that the average time to graft rejection was 15.4 days in animals treated with IPL423,323, was 13.5 days in those treated with cyclosporine, and was 8.5 days in an untreated group.
Inflazyme hopes to begin human clinical trials of at least one compound from its IPL423 series by the end of next year.
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