In an initial clinical trial that marks a significant step
toward finding an effective Huntington’s disease treatment, the Ionis Pharmaceuticals gene-silencing drug safely reduced the production of the toxic mutant protein
implicated in HD, the firm announced today.
Ionis has handed development of the expected Phase 2 trial
to its partner in the project, the multinational pharmaceutical giant Roche,
earning a $45 million license fee, today’s Ionis press release stated. The drug
is called IONIS-HTTRx: “HTT” stands for both the huntingtin gene and
the protein it produces, and “Rx” signifies a remedy.
The trial was officially classified as Phase 1/2a. A Phase 1
trial measure’s a drug’s safety and tolerability in a small number of
participants, while a Phase 2 trial examines efficacy in a larger group of
patients. Though mainly Phase 1, this trial had elements of a Phase 2: actual
HD patients took part, and it sought to determine whether the drug’s basic
mechanism worked.
“We are encouraged by the performance of IONIS-HTTRx in the
Phase 1/2a clinical study,” Frank Bennett, Ph.D., Ionis senior vice president of
research, stated in the release.
The reductions of the mutant protein “observed in the study
substantially exceeded our expectations,” Dr. Bennett added. The study, which
involved 46 participants with early HD symptoms, did not assess whether that
reduction slowed disease progression.
Ionis stated that “dose-dependent reductions of mHTT were
observed” in the trial: the higher the dosage, the greater the reduction in the
amount of the mutant protein.
“We were equally encouraged by
the safety profile of the drug,” Dr. Bennett stated.
“The results of this trial are of ground-breaking importance
for Huntington’s disease patients and families,” stated Dr. Sarah Tabrizi,
professor of clinical neurology, director of the University College London’s
Huntington Centre, and the global lead investigator on the Phase 1/2a study. “For
the first time, a drug has lowered the level of the toxic disease-causing
protein in the nervous system, and the drug was safe and well tolerated. The
key now is to move quickly to a larger trial to test whether IONIS-HTTRx
slows disease progression.”
Pharma giant Roche steps in
Ionis officials stated in June that a Phase 2 study could
start as soon as 2018.
Typically, all three phases of a clinical trial project take at least five
years, although nobody can predict the actual course of a trial.
In 2013, Ionis, a mid-sized drug-discovery firm that does
not produce or sell drugs or conduct clinical trials on its own, partnered with
Roche, one of the world’s largest and most successful pharmaceutical companies
(click here and here to read more). Roche’s expertise includes neurodegenerative brain diseases.
Roche will now take over the development of IONIS-HTTRx,
including the Phase 2 and potential Phase 3 trials and bringing the drug to
market. It will hold the license to the drug.
Roche also will administer the open-label extension of the
Phase 1/2a study, announced in June, whereby all patients – including those who
got a placebo – will continue to receive the drug. The extension allows
researchers to gather more data, examine the drug’s effects over a longer
period of time, and better prepare for Phase 2. Patients also potentially
benefit by receiving the drug longer.
Phase 2 to include United States
By attacking Huntington’s disease near its genetic roots,
IONIS-HTTRx could potentially reduce, partly reverse, and even
prevent symptoms. Ionis drugs are antisense oligonucleotides, artificial
strands of DNA. The drug aims to turn off the huntingtin gene messenger RNA
that contains the instructions to make the huntingtin protein in brain cells.
Forty-six patients took part in
the Phase 1/2a trial at sites in Canada, Germany, and England.
“Today is an exciting day for the Huntington’s disease
community,” a joint Ionis-Roche letter to the HD community stated. “Future
studies for the program will be conducted globally, including in the U.S. Roche
will announce details about future studies, including eligibility criteria and
planned start dates, as this information becomes available.”
More than a decade of research
IONIS-HTTRx resulted from more than a decade of research
involving Ionis, Roche, the lab of neurobiologist Donald Cleveland, Ph.D., at
the University of California, San Diego,
and CHDI Foundation, Inc., the nonprofit virtual biotech firm aimed
solely at finding (and funding) HD treatments.
On December 3, Dr. Cleveland received the $3 million
Breakthrough Prize, the world’s richest science award, sponsored by Google,
Facebook, and other entities. It is twice the value of the Nobel Prize. Dr.
Cleveland received recognition for his career contributions to the life
sciences, including work on a cause of Alzheimer’s disease. (Click here to read more.)
Dr. Cleveland was honored at the 2012 gala of the San Diego
Chapter of the Huntington’s Disease Society of America. For a recent
article explaining the Dr. Cleveland’s role in the Ionis project, click here.
In interviews today, I hope to obtain further details about
the progress regarding IONIS-HTTRx.
HDBuzz’s take: a historic
breakthrough
The HD research site HDBuzz,
produced by scientists, stated that today’s announcement is “likely to stand as
one of the biggest breakthroughs in Huntington’s disease since the discovery of
the HD gene in 1993.”
The site’s article, written by Jeff Carroll, Ph.D. – an HD-gene
carrier like me and a scientist dedicating his career to finding HD treatments –
asserted that the “most exciting” part of today’s news is that “dose-dependent
reductions of mutant huntingtin were observed.”
The clinical trial administrators know this because they examined
samples of participants’ cerebrospinal fluid, which runs along the spine and
into the brain. Participants received injections of the drug via a spinal tap.
“This means that patients treated with IONIS-HTTRx have
reductions in the huntingtin protein in their cerebrospinal fluid,” Dr. Carroll
wrote. “Based on this result, it looks like the drug is doing what it’s meant
to do, and that huntingtin lowering has been achieved!”
Dr. Wild concluded: “This is a great day in the HD
community, and it sets us on the path to even more exciting work in 2018. For
the first time in history, HD patients are being treated with drugs known to
reduce the amount of huntingtin protein in their brain. Until we conduct the
next trial, we won’t know if this reduces the impact of HD. And while we know
the drug is safe in the short term, we will also have to watch carefully for any
long-term adverse effects. But we’re facing this problem with renewed
excitement and hope. It’s the best early Christmas present we could have hoped
for.”
Jeff Carroll, Ph.D., at the 2012 CHDI-sponsored HD therapeutics conference (photo by Gene Veritas)
(Disclosure: I hold a symbolic amount of Ionis shares.)
1 comment:
So hopeful. Thanks.
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