Zak’s Small Cap Research has provided its feedback from a ‘key opinion leader virtual event’ hosted by Tiziana Life Sciences Ltd.
The set-piece was organized after the publication of encouraging data from a trial of Tiziana’s lead drug, which was used to treat a single patient with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis, an advanced form of the disease.
Signs of efficacy were detected, while Tiziana’s nasally administered Foralumab was well tolerated and there were no adverse effects in the six months of therapy, which will be continued.
Based on these observations, the US Food & Drug Administration has allowed a second patient to receive the drug.
Zak’s analyst John Vandermosten was one of the ‘opinion leaders’ taken step by step through the data.
“Of the observations by the investigators most noteworthy was intranasal Foralumab’s effect on microglial activation as imaged by PET [positron emission tomography],” he said. “No previous studies have shown PET signal reduction to this extent in multiple regions of the brain after other treatments, even in less advanced (RRMS) stages.”
The research team at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Harvard, was able to detect a sustained inhibition of certain key drivers of MS, such as microglia, while stabilization of disease was picked up via clinical assessments.
Established MS drugs such as Tysabri, made by Biogen Inc (NASDAQ:BIIB), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) drug Mayzent and Zeposia, from Bristol Myers Squibb Co, are known to suppress microglial activation.
“The potential for intranasally administered foralumab to suppress microglial activation is a novel and well-tolerated immunologic approach to potentially treat SPMS, a form of MS that currently has no effective treatment,” Howard Weiner, director of the MS Program at BWH and chairman of Tiziana’s scientific advisory board said last week.
For more information, click here.