Velcura Therapeutics, Inc. Reports Successful Phase 1 Clinical Trial Of Novel Bone Disease Therapy

Main Category: Bones / Orthopaedics
Also Included In: Arthritis;  Clinical Trials / Drug Trials;  Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry
Article Date: 14 May 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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Velcura Therapeutics, Inc. announced the successful completion of a first-in-man clinical trial for its lead compound, VEL-0230, which the company is investigating as a treatment for Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and other bone diseases. In extensive preclinical studies, VEL-0230 proved to be a powerful anti-inflammatory agent that also stimulates bone formation and inhibits bone loss. Taken together, these characteristics strongly suggest this drug may be an important therapy for RA patients.

"The successful completion of the first studies in healthy human volunteers is an important milestone in developing VEL-0230 as a therapy," said Michael W. Long, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer of Velcura. "While we are still analyzing and tabulating the data, our preliminary conclusions are that the drug is safe and well-tolerated over a range of doses."

"During this initial safety study in humans, the drug caused a rapid (within 15 minutes) and marked (80%) reduction in CTx levels, a biomarker of bone resorption. Our next step is to evaluate the drug for efficacy in RA patients," said Dr. Long who added, "We plan to move into multiple clinical studies as rapidly as possible."

VEL-0230 is being studied as an orally available molecule that promotes bone formation, inhibits bone loss and reduces inflammation. If successful in RA patients Velcura Therapeutics plans to study it as a treatment for other bone disorders, such as bone loss related to multiple myeloma, bone metastases, and osteoporosis.

About Velcura Therapeutics, Inc.

Velcura Therapeutics, Inc. is an early stage biotechnology company headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Velcura's research focus is to understand human bone disease and to discover novel therapeutics that restore bone health. Velcura develops highly differentiated therapies for bone disease; specifically, therapies that restore the balance between bone building and bone loss activities in a single molecule. Velcura uses its patented platform technologies to discover and optimize these compounds. More information is at http://www.velcura.com.

Velcura Therapeutics Inc.
http://www.velcura.com