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ImmuPharma has its eye on the prize

Published: 07:31 04 May 2016 BST

Graphic showing the organs and parts of the body affected by Lupus.
The autoimmune disease Lupus is a debilitating illness as this graphic shows.

ImmuPharma PLC (LON:IMM) confirmed it had begun dosing its first patients in the phase-III trial of its flagship drug Lupuzor for the hard-to-treat autoimmune disease Lupus.

In all 200 people will take part in the study, which is being carried out over 10 centres in the States and 35 in Europe and which is funded from an £8.4mln share placing in February and March.

Recruitment for the pivotal clinical trial, being overseen by ImmuPharma’s partner Simbec-Orion, will be complete sometime this year, with results expected by the end of 2017.

If it successfully negotiates the final regulatory hurdles, Lupuzor has the potential to be a blockbuster treatment.

The progress report was given alongside full-year results. As is common for a company at this formative stage of its development, ImmuPharma was loss-making. The deficit was £3.9mln, up £1mln from a year ago.

Its cash position was been bolstered by the proceeds of the earlier-mentioned share placing.

Coming up behind Lupuzor is the firm’s cancer drug, IPP-204106, and a phase I/IIa dose-finding adaptive study was concluded last year.

A number of options are under review to further progress this programme, ImmuPharma said.

ImmuPharma and partner, the Centre National de la Recherché Scientifique, have filed a new co-owned patent controlling the company's peptide platform technology, with type-II diabetes being the first therapeutic area to be targeted,

However, the immediate focus of time and funds will be on the flagship Lupus treatment, said chairman Tim McCarthy.

"ImmuPharma is focused on ensuring the successful development of the late stage clinical development of Lupuzor through its pivotal phase III trial,” he told investors.

“The key milestone this year is the completion of the recruitment of the 200 Lupus patients with top line results announced by the end of 2017, and management will continue to communicate on a regular basis with shareholders as this trial progresses.”

 

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