Bone Medical Developing Potentially First Rheumatoid Arthritis Drug To Treat Both IL6 And TNF, Australia

Main Category: Arthritis / Rheumatology
Article Date: 29 Jan 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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New data from the Bone Medical Ltd (ASX: BNE) rheumatoid arthritis (RA) programme shows that its lead drug candidate BN006 is capable not only of down-regulating TNF secretion, but also of inhibiting secretion of IL6.

BN006 has been developed as an inhibitor of secretion of TNF, one of the cytokines involved in the inflammatory process that perpetuates RA. It has now been found that BN006 also inhibits IL6 secretion by macrophage type cells in culture with a clear dose-response relationship. This is significant as IL6 is becoming recognised as an important target alongside TNF in for new therapeutics in treatment of RA.

Although no such products have yet arrived on the market, one therapy targeting IL6 (Roche's Actemra) is in Phase III clinical trials. Roche recently reported the generation of positive data from its latest studies.

Professor Peter Brooks, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Queensland and a renowned world expert in arthritis, said "IL6 is one of the agents which is instrumental in creating the vicious cycle of inflammatory events in RA and could be as important in treatment of RA in the future as TNF is at present."

Both Actemra and the current anti-TNF treatments such as Remicade, Infliximab and Eternacept, are all monoclonal antibodies which need to be injected. Bone's candidate is a small molecule which could be orally available making the treatment much more patient friendly.

Dr Roger New, Chief Scientific Officer of Bone Medical, pointed out "the current monoclonal antibody treatments all target just one single component in the inflammatory process - either TNF or IL6. To have one molecule which affects both of these cytokines together could make it a much more powerful approach to treatment."

About Bone Medical Limited

Bone Medical Limited is an international biopharmaceutical development company positioned to exploit the growing market in the treatment of bone disease particularly in osteoporosis and arthritis. Bone has a portfolio of biopharmaceutical development projects for the treatment of bone disease including,

-- Osteoporosis

- Capsitonin™ oral calcitonin
- CaPTHymone™ oral parathyroid hormone
- bone cell regulators BN005 & BN008

-- Arthritis

- TNF regulators BN006
- joint protection & collagen tolerance BN007

Bone Medical Ltd

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