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news.Biopharmaceutical company ChemoCentryx has filed an investigational new drug application with the FDA to begin clinical studies of CCX915, the company's drug candidate for the therapeutic regulation of underlying inflammation.
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CCX915 is a small molecule inhibitor of the CCR2 chemokine receptor which is implicated in the damaging inflammation underlying multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
“Highly potent and selective antagonists of specific chemokine receptors represent new modes of action by which such diseases may be treated,” said Dr Thomas Schall, president and CEO of ChemoCentryx.
The company expects to complete phase I studies of the compound in 2006.
Preclinical studies of CCX915 have shown it to have a favorable safety and pharmacokinetic profile when given orally at dose levels sufficient to cause inhibition of CCR2 function. ChemoCentryx will now conduct initial clinical trials to examine the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of CCX915 in humans.
Dose-escalating studies in healthy volunteers will be performed to measure the blood levels of CCX915 and to assess its tolerability. Based on those results, ChemoCentryx plans to initiate proof-of-concept clinical trials of CCX915 in patients with multiple sclerosis.
Based on the high degree of target specificity observed, CCX915 has the potential to avoid the undesirable side effects of traditional immunosuppressive therapies used in MS and other autoimmune disease indications.