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Apollo Life Sciences Begins Tests of Breakthrough Oral TNF Blocker for Arthritis |
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02 Nov 2006 |
Apollo Life Sciences Begins Tests of Breakthrough Oral TNF Blocker for Arthritis
SYDNEY, Australia | Nov 01, 2006 | Apollo Life Sciences has announced that it is beginning pre-clinical trials of a tablet TNF blocker for arthritis, using its own breakthrough Oradel(TM) oral delivery system, in tandem with its own ALS-00T2 TNF blocker, which was developed especially for delivery in tablet form.
The trials extend two key Apollo platforms - the company's Oradel oral delivery technology, which has already been shown to deliver oral insulin effectively in diabetic rats, and the company's own ALS-00T2 TNF blocker, which has already proven effective at reducing inflammation in animal trials when injected or rubbed on the skin, and has completed Phase 1b clinical human trials for psoriasis.
TNF blockers, with market revenues of $8.5 billion in 2005, are growing rapidly in popularity for the treatment of inflammatory conditions such as arthritis, psoriasis and Crohn's disease, and are regarded as among the best treatments for arthritis, relieving its symptoms and slowing the speed of joint damage. However, they are usually injected or given via intravenous drip, unpleasant for patients and taking up to two hours.
"We are now broadening Oradel technology from insulin to the larger market of anti-inflammatories. The TNF blocker development represents an extension of our oral delivery platform," said Dr Greg Russell-Jones, Apollo's Science Director. "Successful studies with the TNF blocker will pave the way for using Oradel technology with any of the current antibody therapy technologies on the market. In other words, antibodies used in medicine that today have to be injected will be able to be delivered in tablet form."
Apollo's Oradel delivery system will potentially transform the experience for patients. A special tablet coating stops the drug being degraded in the stomach and delivers it into the circulatory system where it can do its work. This could also save the health system substantial amounts of money by reducing the number of patients visiting doctors' offices to have drips administered.
Follow the successful animal trial with oral insulin using Oradel reducing blood glucose levels in diabetic rats, Apollo's animal trials of ALS-00T2 using Oradel for will assess whether the TNF blocker delivered orally is effective at reducing inflammation in mice. "We look forward to developing our tablet TNF blocker further and hope to begin clinical human trials in 2007," Dr Russell-Jones added.
About Apollo's Oradel Oral Delivery Technology
Apollo's proprietary oral delivery platform technology, Oradel, allows the uptake of a protein, such as insulin, from the gut into the bloodstream in an active form through the use of small molecule transporters, and protects the proteins from stomach enzymes. Apollo has filed provisional patents on the new oral delivery formulation, following promising in vitro results and pre-clinical experiments with a range of proteins up to antibody size and antibodies.
For more information on Oradelis, please see http://www.apollolifesciences.com/OralDelivery.aspx .
About Apollo Life Sciences Limited Apollo Life Sciences (ASX: AOP) is a biotechnology company that has made major breakthroughs in the areas of drug delivery and expression of proteins from human cells. Apollo's combined technologies are expected to lead to more effective and lower cost therapeutics, compared to first generation protein-based drugs. For more information visit www.apollolifesciences.com.
SOURCE: Apollo Life Sciences |
