Tag: birch pollen allergy
Company News: Anergis Announces Completion of Treatment in AllerT Phase II Dose-Ranging Trial
– 213 patients included in trial of novel ultra-fast allergy immunotherapeutic
Anergis, a company developing novel and proprietary ultra-fast allergy immunotherapeutics, today announced treatment completion of its Phase II clinical trial of AllerT, a novel long-peptide immunotherapeutic to treat birch pollen allergies. In the trial, 213 patients were randomized to receive target doses of 10, 25 or 50 µg of AllerT or placebo as 5 subcutaneous injections over 2 months. The last patient was treated at the end of March. No serious adverse events and no grade 3 or 4 allergic reactions were reported. The trial is being conducted in Canada and is still blinded. Results are expected in Q3 of 2015.
Company News: Anergis Obtains Core Technology Patent in Japan
– Patent covers Contiguous Overlapping Peptide technology for the development of ultra-fast allergy vaccines –
Anergis, a company focusing on proprietary allergy vaccines, today announced it was granted a Japanese patent on its key technology from the Japanese Patent Office. The patent #5389326 broadly covers the Contiguous Overlapping Peptide (COP) technology which is used by Anergis to define and select new products for the ultra-fast treatment of multiple allergies.
“We have already been granted patents protecting our COP technology in the U.S. and Australia,” said Christophe Reymond, CSO of Anergis. “COPs are pharmaceutical quality products that provide the complete allergen sequence covering all T cell epitopes, but do not elicit allergic hypersensitivity. Therefore, COPs can be administered safely at high doses to induce tolerance to the allergen after a few injections only.”
He added that Anergis has already demonstrated in Phase I/IIa and IIb trials that just five injections of its lead COP allergy vaccine AllerT over a period of two months were sufficient to achieve long-lasting immunological effects as well as seasonal symptom reductions in allergic patients, similar to conventional allergy immunotherapy.
“Obtaining patent protection in Japan is an important milestone for Anergis because the Japanese population suffers from numerous allergies, particularly to house dust mites and to Japanese cedar,” said Vincent Charlon, CEO of Anergis.
Anergis’ COP technology can be applied to a broad spectrum of allergy indications. At present, Anergis is developing AllerT for the treatment of birch pollen allergy, AllerR for ragweed pollen allergies and AllerDM for dust mite allergies.
Company News: Anergis Obtains U.S. Patent for Lead Product AllerT
Anergis, a company developing breakthrough allergy vaccines for fast and safe allergen-specific immunotherapy, has been granted patent protection for its AllerT birch pollen allergy treatment in the U.S.
The patent No. 8,343,503 granted by the U.S. Patent Office broadly covers composition of matter and medical use of AllerT, the lead product of Anergis. AllerT is composed of a set of three contiguous overlapping peptides (COPs) derived from the allergen Bet v 1, which plays a key role in inducing birch pollen allergy.
AllerT is currently evaluated in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled Phase IIb trial enrolling about 300 patients with moderate to severe birch pollen allergy in up to 30 trial centers throughout Europe. Results are expected in Q3, 2013. In an earlier Phase I/IIa trial, a 2-month treatment with AllerT was well tolerated by patients with moderate to severe allergy to birch pollen. In these patients, AllerT elicited long-lasting immunological responses, evidenced by significantly elevated allergen-specific IgG4 antibody levels four years after completion of the 2-month treatment with AllerT.
Company News: Long-Term Immunomodulation Induced by Anergis´ COP Allergy Vaccine AllerT Now Extends to the 4th Year After Treatment
Patients with birch pollen allergy who received an ultra-fast allergy vaccine four years ago maintain an elevated level of antibodies against the allergen, reports Swiss biopharmaceutical company Anergis.
The company, which is developing breakthrough allergy vaccines for fast and safe allergen-specific immunotherapy, today announced new data on the immune-regulatory effect of its AllerT vaccine.
In 2008/2009, twenty patients suffering from moderate to severe allergies to birch pollen were enrolled in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled Phase I/IIa trial and received 5 subcutaneous injections over 2 months of either AllerT (N=15) or placebo (N=5). Four years later, all subjects were invited to return to the trial center. In subjects who had received AllerT, blood levels of so-called IgG4 antibodies against specific birch pollen allergens were similar to those reported after 2 years (in 2010) and still 4.5 times higher than the pre-treatment baseline level (p< 0.001). Placebo-treated patients showed no median change from baseline in allergen-specific IgG4 at any time during the trial treatment period, nor after the 2010 and 2012 birch pollen seasons.
Earlier this week, Anergis also announced the start of a large, 300-patient real-life seasonal efficacy phase IIb trial with AllerT in patients allergic to birch pollen. This trial is being conducted in multiple European countries [NCT01720251].