Renovis has initiated a phase Ia clinical trial to assess the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of REN-850, an investigational oral small molecule targeted for the treatment of multiple sclerosis.
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The objective of this trial is to assess escalating single doses of REN-850 in approximately 45 healthy volunteers.
This trial will represent the first step towards establishing the investigational medicine’s safety and tolerability profile in humans and, if successful, will support a phase Ib study of escalating multiple doses in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients.
REN-850 acts by inhibiting leukocyte trafficking and preclinical studies have shown it to modulate the cell migration driven by multiple chemokine receptors. These studies have also shown that oral administration of REN-850 significantly reduces severity of outcomes in multiple in vivo models of MS and rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
“Preclinical data suggest that targeting the actions of multiple chemokine receptors may represent a more effective approach to the treatment of MS and other autoimmune diseases than drugs that are more narrowly targeted,” said Dr Tito Serafini, vice president of discovery research at Renovis.