LONDON (Alliance News) - Verona Pharma PLC Thursday said it has completed patient enrolment for the dose-finding study of RPL554 in asthma and the Phase IIa combination study of RPL554 in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The drug development company said RPL554 is a novel inhaled PDE3/PDE4 inhibitor with anti-inflammatory as well as bronchodilatory properties, currently in development as a nebulised treatment for acute exacerbations in COPD patients in a hospital or home-care setting.
Phase IIa results from a prior study using nebulised RPL554 alone in stable COPD patients with moderate severity of disease, showed that in addition to good tolerability and safety profile,
RPL554 caused a pronounced improvement in lung function, suggesting the drug produced a clinically meaningful bronchodilator effect, it added.
Headline data is expected in the first quarter of 2016 for the asthma study and in the second quarter of 2016 for the COPD study.
"We are very pleased to have completed recruitment in both of these studies ahead of our plan. We believe the results will continue to build on the positive data recently announced from our Phase I/IIa study, which demonstrated that the new commercially scalable, suspension formulation of RPL554 is well tolerated and that the extent of the bronchodilation exceeded that seen in earlier studies with the prior formulation. We believe RPL554 has the potential to become an important new treatment option for both COPD and asthma patients and look forward to reporting headline data from both studies in the first half of next year," Chief Executive Jan-Anders Karlsson said in a statement.
Verona Pharma shares were trading up 2.5% at 3.05 pence Thursday morning.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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