Allergy Therapeutics plc (LON:AGY) said the phase I clinical study of Acarovac MPL has received official sign-off in Spain.
The trial will assess the safety and how well tolerated the new dust mite treatment is.
A total of 32 patients will receive Acarovac, which will be administered at two different doses. The trial is expected to take 12 months from start to finish.
If the phase I assessment is successful, Allergy Therapeutics will launch the inoculation in Spain on a named-patient basis. This is where doctors can prescribe a drug without it having received regulatory sign-off.
Acarovac MPL is the only house-dust mite immunotherapy in development utilising microcrystalline tyrosine, which is natural and biodegradable.
It also uses monophosphoryl lipid A, or MPL for short, as an adjuvant which enhances the body’s immune response.
Harnessing the two in tandem should improve both safety and efficacy for the thousands suffers, according to Allergy Therapeutics’ boss Manuel Llobet.
The new formulation has the “potential to improve the convenience, adherence and compliance that is essential for a successful treatment, and builds on the acceptance of the existing Acarovac Plus platform”, he added.
Microscopic in size, the problems house dust mites create are significant and include perennial allergic rhinitis (non-seasonal hay fever) and allergic asthma.
The market is worth an estimated US$1.5bn annually.
The shares rose 3% to 25.32p, valuing the business at £150mln. Panmure Gordon in a note on Allergy reckons it is worth a sum-of-the-parts 53p. Numis thinks the stock is worth 37p.
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