ImmuPharma PLC (LON:IMM) saw its shares gain 5% today after the group said 52 patients have now completed the year-long course of treatment with its lead drug candidate, Lupuzor, for the life-threatening auto-immune disease Lupus.
They are among 200 sufferers taking part in the phase III study.
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Because the trial is what’s called double-blind – meaning one group receives the treatment the other a placebo and not even the doctors know which group is which – ImmuPharma has no guide to efficacy at the moment.
We’ll know how effective Lupuzor is when the top line data is shared with the market in the first quarter of next year.
Robust safety profile
However, researchers do know the drug has a “robust” safety profile in line with what was observed in the phase IIb assessment.
As well as around a quarter of the patients having finished their course of drugs, all the people taking part in the trial are past the half-way mark (six months).
“We will now see an accelerated number of patients completing the full 12 months of the trial over the next couple of months,” said chairman Tim McCarthy.
READ: ImmuPharma says lead lupus drug development programme on track to deliver results in the first quarter of 2017
“Importantly, with Lupuzor being administered to greater numbers of patients over a longer period of time, we are delighted to be observing the continuation of our robust safety profile.”
In late afternoon trading, ImmuPharma shares were up 5.2%, or 2.5p at 50.74p.
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