R&D Tax Incentive attracts MS clinical trial

New Zealand-based Innate Immunotherapeutics has announced the company will proceed with plans to conduct a Phase IIB clinical trial in Australia, after positive interim data from the company’s Phase I/II clinical trial of MIS416 in patients with chronic progressive multiple sclerosis (MS).

“We are very encouraged in the potential of MIS416 as a treatment for secondary progressive MS based on the results from this trial to date, as well as observations in a small number of patients who have received MIS416 under New Zealand compassionate use protocols,” Innate Immunotherapeutics chief executive officer, Simon Wilkinson, said.

“We intend to investigate the sustainability of the improvements in clinical status seen in this study through a 12-month Phase IIB study, which should begin enrolment in early 2013. We now plan to conduct this study in Australia to take advantage of that country’s greater patient availability and access to excellent principal investigators and trial sites. In particular, the announcement last year of the Australian Government’s 45 per cent R&D tax incentive clenched the country choice for us.”

Innate Immunotherapeutics Limited is a public unlisted biopharmaceutical company based in Auckland, New Zealand. The company is focused on the development of a new generation of immune response modifiers for potential use in the treatment of MS and other autoimmune diseases, a range of infectious diseases, certain cancers, and as a novel cellular and humoral adjuvant.

MIS416 is the lead product from Innate Immunotherapeutics’ proprietary immune modulating microparticle technology.

The technology is based on the use of a bacterially derived, therapeutic microparticle incorporating multiple naturally occurring ligands, which when administered can activate synergistic innate immune signalling pathways to down regulate chronic inflammation, reduce autoimmune factors and help repair damaged tissue. “This increasingly coherent research around symptomatic relief, especially for those with secondary progressive forms of Multiple Sclerosis, is an exciting and extremely positive move in the right direction for those with MS and their families,” Multiple Sclerosis Society of New Zealand national director, Rosie Gallagher, said.

“Disease modifying therapies for those with MS tend to be of the immune-suppressant variety and are specifically for those with the relapsing-remitting form of the disease; however, these treatments have little to no effect on secondary progressive MS patients. This is a worry for the future, as around 75 per cent of those with the relapsing-remitting form of the disease will eventually move into being classified as secondary progressive.

"We therefore welcome and encourage more research into MIS416, which, as well as potentially offering relief to those with this debilitating chronic illness, also gives hope to those with secondary progressive MS in that they may finally have a tangible symptomatic treatment option.”