Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Nastech completes enrolment for phase 2 trial of obesity drug

Nastech Pharmaceutical Company Inc. has completed enrolment for its phase II clinical trial of PYY3-36 Nasal Spray to treat obesity. The company enrolled 551 obese patients at multiple clinical sites in the United States for a six-month, randomised, placebo-controlled dose ranging study.

The study is designed to evaluate three different doses of PYY3-36 Nasal Spray compared to placebo and sibutramine (Meridia), a commercially available oral weight loss drug, with the primary endpoint being weight loss.

"We are pleased with the rapid enrolment of 551 patients into the Phase 2 study to evaluate PYY3-36 nasal spray as a novel treatment for obesity. The fact that we exceeded our enrolment target of 510 patients is an indication of the unmet need for an effective obesity therapeutic," stated Gordon Brandt, M.D., president, Nastech. "The dramatic rise in obesity globally requires safe and effective treatment options for the hundreds of millions of people whose lives are impacted by this condition. If successful, PYY Nasal Spray would offer a patient-friendly product to promote weight loss."

Peptide YY is a naturally occurring hormone that is believed to function as a physiologic inhibitor of food intake. PYY is released into the blood stream from specialized endocrine cells (L-cells) in the gut after a meal and is believed to trigger the feeling of satiety, or fullness. Because PYY is a peptide, initial studies focused on PYY delivery by injection. Utilizing its proprietary drug delivery technology, Nastech developed the nasal spray formulation of PYY as a unique, non-invasive treatment option for obesity.

Nastech is a biopharmaceutical company developing innovative products based on proprietary molecular biology-based drug delivery technologies. Nastech is creating technologies that enable the delivery of peptide and protein therapeutics without the requirement of an injection, which is currently the most common form of administration for this class of drugs.

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