India Pharma Outlook Team | Thursday, 28 April 2022
Alterity Therapeutics, a clinical stage biotechnology company, announced that the United Kingdom Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has accepted Alterity’s clinical trial authorization (CTA) request to conduct its phase 2 clinical trial for ATH434 in Multiple System Atrophy (MSA), a rare and highly debilitating Parkinsonian disorder.
“Approval by the MHRA in the UK is another important step forward for our ATH434 clinical development program,” said David Stamler, M.D., chief executive officer, Alterity. “We expect to open our first phase 2 clinical trial site in New Zealand this quarter and then expand the trial globally in the UK, other European countries, Australia and the United States. We look forward to bringing this potential therapy to individuals with MSA who currently have no treatments to address the underlying pathology of their disease.”
The phase 2 clinical trial is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled investigation of ATH434 in patients with early-stage MSA. The study will explore the effect of ATH434 treatment on imaging and protein biomarkers such as aggregating a-synuclein and excess iron, which are important contributors to MSA pathology. Clinical endpoints and other biomarkers will permit comprehensive assessment of ATH434 efficacy along with characterization of safety and pharmacokinetics.
Patients will receive treatment for 12 months which will provide an opportunity to detect changes in efficacy endpoints to optimize design of a definitive phase 3 study. Alterity’s lead candidate, ATH434, is the first of a
new generation of small molecules designed to inhibit the aggregation of pathological proteins implicated in neurodegeneration. ATH434 has been shown preclinically to reduce a-synuclein pathology and preserve nerve cells by restoring normal iron balance in the brain.
In this way, it has excellent potential to treat Parkinson’s disease as well as various forms of atypical Parkinsonism such as Multiple System Atrophy (MSA). ATH434 has successfully completed a Phase 1 clinical trial demonstrating the agent is well tolerated, orally bioavailable, and achieved brain levels comparable to efficacious levels in animal models of MSA, with the objective of restoring function in patients with MSA and other Parkinsonian disorders. ATH434 has been granted Orphan designation for the treatment of MSA by the US FDA and the European Commission.
Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) is a rare, neurodegenerative disease characterized by failure of the autonomic nervous system and impaired movement. The symptoms reflect the progressive loss of function and death of different types of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. It is a rapidly progressive disease and causes profound disability. MSA is a Parkinsonian disorder characterized by a variable combination of slowed movement and/or rigidity, autonomic instability that affects involuntary functions such as blood pressure maintenance and bladder control, and impaired balance and/or coordination that predisposes to falls.
A pathological hallmark of MSA is the accumulation of the protein a-synuclein within glia, the support cells of the central nervous system, and neuron loss in multiple brain regions. MSA affects approximately 15,000 individuals in the US, and while some of the symptoms of MSA can be treated with medications, currently there are no drugs that are able to slow disease progression and there is no cure. Alterity Therapeutics is a clinical stage biotechnology company dedicated to creating an alternate future for people living with neurodegenerative diseases.
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