Pharmaceutical Business review

Avicena to conduct trial for Huntington’s disease drug

The trial involved the selection of the optimal dose of HD-02, the company’s novel drug candidate for the treatment of Huntington’s disease.

The dose escalation study evaluated HD-02 in a range of doses from 10 to 40 grams per day, and successfully determined the optimal dose that provided the maximum efficacy, safety and tolerability. The full scope of the data will be disseminated upon the results being peer reviewed.

Based on these findings, Avicena in collaboration with the Huntington Study Group have developed a double-blind, placebo-controlled phase III clinical trial anticipated to commence in early 2008. The trial will be one of the single largest trials for Huntington’s patients, with external funding to be announced.

Upon commencement of this study, Avicena says it will have advanced three different indications into phase III trials that include some of the largest trial to date in both Parkinson’s and Huntington’s.