Arakis and Vectura announces Phase IIa trial for COPD drug
18 Aug 2003
Arakis and Vectura announces Phase IIa trial for COPD drug
Arakis Ltd and Vectura Ltd, both UK based specialty pharmaceutical companies, announced today that their co-development product, NVA237, a novel inhaled treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), has entered a Phase IIa clinical trial to study the safety and efficacy of a range of single doses in 40 COPD patients. The clinical trial material was supplied from Vectura's new manufacturing facility.
The pharmaceutical compound formulated in NVA237 has recognised bronchodilating properties but is currently approved and marketed for a different non-respiratory indication. Vectura and Arakis believe that an optimised inhaled formulation will offer a potentially long acting, once daily profile, well suited to COPD therapy and with possible side effect benefits over current therapy.COPD is an irreversible and chronic obstruction of the airways. It is primarily caused by smoking. It is estimated that the disease is prevalent in approximately 4% of the population of US, continental Europe and Japan, but remains under diagnosed. COPD is considered to be the fourth leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the US with an annual cost in excess of $30 billion.
Peter Virley, CEO of Vectura, said "There are unique challenges in optimally delivering inhaled products to the lungs of COPD patients. Vectura already has a proven track record in providing commercially successful drug delivery solutions to difficult formulation challenges. We believe that our proprietary particle engineering and formulation technologies give us an important edge in addressing such challenges and we are pleased to apply these to a product with the potential of NVA237."
Dr Ken Cunningham, CEO of Arakis commented, "COPD is one of the leading causes of death in the industrialised world. Bronchodilation is an important component of successful treatment and we believe with NVA237 that we could have a very promising product with the potential to improve upon existing therapies."
For further information please contact:
For Arakis:
Dr Ken Cunningham, CEO
Telephone +44 (0)1799 532350
Fax +44 (0)1799 532351
Email: enquiries@arakis.com
Vectura Limited
Peter Virley
Tel: +44 (0)1249 667700
Fax: +44 (0)1249 667701
Email: enquiries@vectura.com
Financial Dynamics
David Yates / Lucy Briggs
Tel: + 44 (0) 207 269 7242
