Aus­tralian biotech touts a pos­i­tive mid-stage da­ta read­out — with old Shire drug

A qui­et biotech is re­port­ing some pos­i­tive da­ta in a rare fi­brot­ic dis­ease.

Cer­ta Ther­a­peu­tics — based in Mel­bourne, Aus­tralia — re­port­ed Mon­day that a Phase II tri­al showed “sig­nif­i­cant im­prove­ments across mul­ti­ple ef­fi­ca­cy mea­sures” in pa­tients with scle­ro­der­ma, such as a sys­temic scle­ro­sis in­dex and skin scores.

The main goal of the study, per Cer­ta, was to ex­am­ine the phar­ma­co­ki­net­ics, phar­ma­co­dy­nam­ic ef­fects and safe­ty of FT011 in pa­tients with scle­ro­der­ma, a rare au­toim­mune dis­ease that can cause in­flam­ma­tion in the skin and oth­er parts of the body, like the lungs. Al­so known as crest syn­drome, it has been as­so­ci­at­ed with chron­ic hard­en­ing and tight­ness of the skin.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER