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D-Pharm Submits Investigational New Drug Application and Special Protocol Assessment to the FDA for Phase III Trial of DP-b99 in Acute Stroke Patients

Posted on: Wednesday, 6 May 2009, 07:01 CDT

REHOVOT, Israel, May 6 /PRNewswire/ -- D-Pharm announced today that it has submitted IND and Special Protocol Assessment (SPA) packages to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), for its pivotal Phase III clinical trial of DP-b99 in acute ischemic stroke patients. D-Pharm plans to initiate the trial later this year following FDA review of the IND and SPA. Recently, D-Pharm also obtained Scientific Advice from the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) on the development strategy for DP-b99 in Europe.

Prior to the IND submission D-Pharm successfully completed the program outlined at the pre-IND meeting held with the FDA in January 2008. The program included additional toxicity studies, a drug interaction study with rtPA, and an interaction study with warfarin in healthy volunteers, as well as scale-up and optimization of the DP-b99 manufacturing process.

The planned Phase III trial is a randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled study (study acronym MACSI: Membrane Activated Chelator Stroke Intervention). It is designed to compare the effect on ischemic stroke outcome between a placebo group and a group of patients treated with 1 mg/kg/day of DP-b99 for 4 consecutive days. D-Pharm plans to enroll 770 moderate to severely affected ischemic stroke patients in over 100 clinical sites in North America, Europe, South Africa and Israel.

"I am especially pleased with this achievement since bringing DP-b99 from design to Phase III really reflects the company's ability to adapt and mature along with our lead product. I look forward to agreement on the SPA and commencing our Phase III trial with DP-b99 under IND" said Alex Kozak, PhD, CEO and President of D-Pharm.

Special Protocol Assessment (SPA) is an instrument of the FDA for evaluating protocols and reaching agreement with sponsors on the design of clinical trials that can be used for drug approval. In our case, it applies to a clinical protocol for a trial from which the data will form the primary basis for a claim of efficacy. In general, the SPA can significantly reduce development time since the design of the pivotal protocol has been approved in advance.

About DP-b99

DP-b99 is a unique neuroprotective drug that addresses an array of brain damaging processes occurring in stroke patients and emerged from D-Pharm's proprietary Membrane Activated Chelator (MAC) platform technology. D-Pharm successfully completed extensive testing of DP-b99 in pre-clinical and then in Phase I and Phase II clinical studies. Both preclinical and clinical studies indicate a favorable efficacy and safety profile for DP-b99. In the recently completed Phase IIb trial in 150 ischemic stroke patients, DP-b99 increased by two-fold the percentage of patients that completely recovered from ischemic stroke. DP-b99 may be administered within a nine hour therapeutic window.

About Stroke

Every year approximately 780,000 Americans have a new or recurrent stroke. The second most common cause of death worldwide, stroke is also the leading cause of serious long-term disability; 15% to 30% of stroke survivors experience permanent disability. According to the American Heart Association, the estimated direct and indirect cost in 2009 of stroke in the US is $68.9 billion. Other than tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), which must be administered 3 hours after stroke, there are no FDA approved medicines for this indication.

About D-Pharm Ltd.

D-Pharm (http://www.dpharm.com) is a clinical stage, biopharmaceutical company pioneering the development of lipid-like therapeutics and has generated a rich pipeline of patent protected proprietary products. D-Pharm's pipeline includes advanced clinical stage products DP-b99 for treatment of acute ischemic stroke patients and DP-VPA, a novel drug for treatment of epilepsy, bipolar disorder and prophylaxis of migraine. DP-460 is in preclinical development intended as an oral, disease-modifying therapy for Alzheimer's disease. Other mimics of bioactive lipids, LipidoMimetix, are at an earlier developmental stage, for cancer.

SOURCE D-Pharm Ltd

Source: PR Newswire

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