Circassia Initiates Phase II T-cell Vaccine Trials

The company said that in cat allergy trial 210 patients are expected to be randomised to receive placebo or one of two regimes of the company’s T-cell vaccine. The study is the first to test Circassia’s new room-temperature-stable ToleroMune formulation.

During the study, the volunteers will be exposed to aerosolised cat dander in an environmental exposure chamber, both before and after treatment, to measure the effect of the ToleroMune T-cell vaccine.

Reportedly, Circassia has also initiated the first clinical study of its T-cell vaccine against house dust mite allergy. The double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised trial will include 50 allergy patients.

The active treatment groups will receive four standardised doses of the ToleroMune T-cell vaccine over several weeks. During the trial investigators will ‘challenge’ the volunteers with house dust mite allergens to assess the therapeutic effect of Circassia’s T-cell vaccine.

Steve Harris, CEO of Circassia, said: “The start of these two studies demonstrates the rapid clinical advance of Circassia’s T-cell vaccines. With this further broadening of our portfolio, Circassia now has three development programmes in PhaseII, targeting some of the most common allergies in the world.

“We are committed to continuing this rapid pace of development, to ensure we can bring these breakthrough T-cell vaccines to market as soon as possible. We believe that patients can benefit greatly from our ToleroMune allergy therapies, which offer the prospect of simple, convenient and effective treatment while minimising the risk of the severe and sometimes life-threatening side effects associated with many existing immunotherapies.”