Innate Immunotherapeutics Limited (ASX:IIL) discusses its lead MS drug candidate

Interviews

by Carolyn Herbert

Innate Immunotherapeutics (ASX:IIL) CEO, Simon Wilkinson, discusses the company’s micro-particle technology and its lead drug candidate for secondary progressive Multiple Sclerosis.

Innate Immunotherapeutics is a medical biotechnology company. That’s a bit of a mouthful, but what it means is we’ve got a drug in clinical development for secondary progressive Multiple Sclerosis. Progressive MS is important to us because right now there are no drugs to treat those patients and so from a commercial standpoint that represents a very large unmet need, probably $US4-7 billion.Our lead drug is called MIS416. It is is a drug that modulates the innate wing of the immune system. 

In the context of progressive Multiple Sclerosis, what we’re achieving is an anti-inflammatory effect inside the brain. We are also up-regulating the body’s own ability to repair themyelin which has been damaged in Multiple Sclerosis. Right now MIS416 is in Phase 2B clinical trial. That means we’re in a study designed to really test the efficacy of this drug. Thetrial started in late 2014. We have recruited the 93 patients that we need and we had the last patient come in to the study, in April of this year. Thetrial will finish in the clinic very early May next year, 2017. We expect to have a clinical study report, which will present the results of that study, in August or September next year.

Aninteresting thing about our drug is if we can demonstrate quite clearly that we’re getting an anti-inflammatory effect inside the brain, that could be very important in some other indications, where inflammation inside the brain is part of the disease pathology. A couple of examples would be Alzheimer’s. Inflammation doesn’t cause Alzheimer’s but inflammation can occur in the Alzheimer’s brain. That inflammation is going to have to be treated somehow, or else it’s going to make Alzheimer’s worse. Another example is refractory epilepsy where sometimes the anti-seizure drugs stop working. We think that might be because there’s inflammation inside the brain.

We reported to the market at the end of September that we were holding $7.7 million cash. That was after a very successful fund raising campaign; where we raised about $6.5 million in the last quarter. That was a combination of a rights issue and placements with our existing shareholders. We also received a $1.8 million R&D credit, so that’s always nice money to get back in. Those funds will take us through to the end of our Phase 2 trial. At this stage we’ve got no immediate need for further capital.

In the next 12 months we’ll have a readout from the trial. If we get a solid result, and we’re feeling quite confident about the likely outcome, then we will be actively pursuing a major corporate transaction. That could be the outright sale of the company, which would be a complete return of capital to shareholders, or a major licensing transaction. But any which way, in the next 12 monthsall of these pieces that we’ve been working so hard on, are going to come together. The most important thing obviously, will be the results of that Phase 2 trial.


ENDS 

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