Arete Shows Positive Clinical, Preclinical Results For Diabetes Drug

Arete has announced the presentation of three posters of AR9281, an orally-administered soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) inhibitor, which is in a Phase II clinical program. The drug will be used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.

Arete is conducting a multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of AR9281 in pre-diabetic patients with impaired glucose tolerance, mild obesity and mild-to-moderate hypertension.

James Sabry, President and CEO of Arete, said: Taken together, these data showing AR9281’s safety and attractive pharmaceutic properties in normal healthy volunteers and strong evidence of its efficacy in animal models of type 2 diabetes support the further development of this novel drug candidate for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.

We anticipate that the results from our ongoing phase IIa clinical program in pre-diabetic patients will establish proof of concept that sEH inhibition modulates glucose metabolism or blood pressure in patients with impaired glucose tolerance and hypertension to further corroborate the clinical importance of this novel therapeutic approach, he added.