Circassia Ltd, a specialty
biopharmaceutical company focused on allergy, today announced that it has
initiated phase II clinical trials of its T-cell vaccines targeting house
dust mite and cat allergies. With the start of these studies, and the ongoing
trial of Circassia's ragweed allergy (hay fever) T-cell vaccine, the company
now has three clinical development programmes in phase II. Each of these
builds on earlier successful phase II results with the company's
ToleroMune(R) technology, which scientifically validated the novel use of
T-cell vaccines in the treatment of allergy, and identified the optimal
dosing regimens to progress into late-stage development.
In Circassia's cat allergy trial, which is underway in Canada, 210
patients will be randomised to receive placebo or one of two regimes of the
company's T-cell vaccine. This study is the first to test Circassia's novel
room-temperature-stable ToleroMune formulation. This offers great potential
practical advantages compared with existing allergy desensitisation
treatments, which are inherently unstable and require cold chain distribution
and storage. During the study, the volunteers will be exposed to aerosolised
cat dander in an environmental exposure chamber, both before and after
treatment, to measure the effect of the ToleroMune T-cell vaccine.