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XOMA 052 Designated Orphan Drug by FDA for Treatment of Behcet's Disease
BERKELEY, Calif., Aug 4, 2010 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX News Network) -- XOMA Ltd. (Nasdaq:XOMA), a leader in the discovery and development of therapeutic antibodies, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has designated XOMA 052, an antibody to interleukin-1 beta, an orphan drug for the treatment of Behcet's disease. As previously announced, the Committee for Orphan Medical Products of the European Medicines Agency has recommended the granting of orphan medicinal product designation for XOMA 052 for the same indication in the European Union.
U.S. orphan drug designation is granted by the FDA Office of Orphan Drug Products Development to novel drugs or biologics that may treat a condition affecting fewer than 200,000 persons in the United States. The designation offers a number of potential incentives, which may include, among others, a seven-year period of U.S. marketing exclusivity from the date of marketing authorization, written guidance on the non-clinical and clinical studies needed to obtain marketing approval, and tax credits for certain clinical research.
In June 2010, XOMA announced positive results from an open-label pilot study of XOMA 052 in Behcet's disease patients who were suffering from vision-threatening disease exacerbations, known as uveitis, despite maximal doses of immunosuppressive medicines. All seven patients who enrolled in the trial displayed rapid reduction of intraocular inflammation and improvement in visual acuity or other ophthalmic measures following a single treatment with XOMA 052. Five patients received a second infusion to blunt a developing exacerbation, and all responded to the second infusion. The drug appeared to be safe, and no drug-related adverse events were reported. Preliminary results were presented at the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) in Rome, Italy and at the International Congress on Behcet's Disease in London in July.
About Behcet's Disease
Behcet's (pronounced beh-CHETS) disease is an orphan disease that causes chronic inflammation of the blood vessels, or vasculitis. Major symptoms can affect the neurological, pulmonary, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular systems, and hallmarks of the disease include uveitis, or inflammation of the intraocular tissues of the eye, and painful ulcers in the mouth and on the genitals. Behcet's disease most commonly affects men and women in their twenties, thirties and forties, and it is typically more severe in men. Approximately 16,000 patients in the U.S. are estimated to suffer from Behcet's disease.
About XOMA 052
XOMA 052 is a potent monoclonal antibody with the potential to improve the treatment of patients with a wide variety of inflammatory diseases. XOMA 052 binds strongly to interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta), a pro-inflammatory cytokine involved in diseases including Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis, gout and auto-inflammatory diseases. IL-1 is a well-validated therapeutic target, with three marketed IL-1 inhibitors that have been used by more than 200,000 patients overall. By binding to IL-1 beta, XOMA 052 inhibits the activation of the IL-1 receptor, thereby preventing the cellular signaling events that produce inflammation.
XOMA is conducting two Phase 2 clinical trials of XOMA 052 in patients with Type 2 diabetes and a Phase 2 trial in Type 1 diabetes and has completed a Phase 2 clinical trial in uveitis of Behcet's disease. The Phase 2 trials follow a successful 98 patient Phase 1 program in Type 2 diabetes patients in which XOMA 052 was shown to be well-tolerated, demonstrated evidence of biological activity in diabetes measures and cardiovascular biomarkers, and had a half-life that may provide convenient dosing of once per month or less frequently. The company has also demonstrated the potential for XOMA 052 in in vivo models of atherosclerosis and cardiac remodeling and in an in vitro model using human myeloma, or plasma cell cancer, cells.