OliX Pharma Bags Nod From HREC To Treat non-alcohol Steatohepatitis

OliX Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company and leading developer of RNAi therapeutics, announced that the Alfred Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) has approved the company to conduct a phase 1 clinical trial of drug candidate OLX75016 (the candidate of OLX702A) for the treatment of non-alcohol steatohepatitis (NASH). This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, single and multiple ascending dose research in healthy volunteers will evaluate the safety and tolerability of OLX75016.

OliX Pharmaceuticals is developing OLX75016 as a novel therapeutic in treating NASH accompanied by liver fibrosis and managing weight. The company has secured positive results from a pre-clinical non-human primates (NHP) study on the efficacy of OLX75016. OLX75016 administered together with a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist (semaglutide) demonstrated additional weight-loss effects, mitigated the weight-rebound effect shown upon termination of semaglutide, lowered total body fat mass, and reduced abdominal girth, as per pharmabiz.

According to the corporation, these positive impacts were not mediated by dietary changes. This shows that favorable effects on energy expenditure, rather than dietary alterations or changes in appetite management, underlie the weight-loss effects of this combo treatment.

OliX Pharmaceuticals' main RNAi platform, asymmetric siRNA (asiRNA), is a novel gene silencing technique based on RNA interference (RNAi), the most efficient gene silencing approach. OliX has created cell piercing asiRNA (cp-asiRNA), a therapeutic RNAi platform that uses this patented asiRNA technology to successfully target disorders like as hypertrophic scarring, dry and wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and subretinal fibrosis. OliX has also created GalNAc-asiRNA, a therapeutic RNAi platform, to target a range of liver illnesses.