The secretion of the cytokine TNF-alpha underlies a range of debilitating inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Crohn’s disease, psoriasis, and ankylosing spondylitis, and is considered to be the main factor in driving inflammation.
TNF-alpha inhibitors for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are not new. Indeed, a number of oral products such as Amgen and Wyeth’s Enbrel, Centocor/Schering-Plough/Tanabe’s Remicade (infliximab), and Abbott’s Humira already command enviable shares of the market.
However, Molecular Pharmacology’s president and CEO Jeffrey Edwards explained that, “What makes MPL-104 such an exciting project is that it is directed at producing products that do not directly compete with the current market leaders, and complement their functionality.”
“Irrespective of how well medicated RA sufferers are, it is very common for them to have one or more unresponsive joints. Elevating systemic medication levels to accommodate these is not a clinical option, because of the potential of adverse side effects. This is the therapeutic area where we believe MPL-104 will provide real benefits,” he continued.
MPL-104 appears to be one of the rare TNF-alpha inhibitory drugs that is small enough to be administered topically. This allows it to be formulated as a cream or serum and applied directly to the affected area or joint, without altering systemic levels by any significant amount. The company believes this will allow MPL-104 to be used to support and augment the efficacy of existing market leading drugs rather than be competitive to them.