iCo Therapeutics Oral Anti-Parasitic Drug to be Presented at Global Health Symposia
March 23, 2009
VANCOUVER, Canada— iCo Therapeutics Inc. (TSX-V: ICO) announced today that results from the company’s anti-fungal and anti-parasitic oral Amphotericin B program, “iCo-009”, will be presented at a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation sponsored event in Breckenridge, Colorado.
The conference, “Drug Discovery for Protozoan Parasites”, is part of the Keystone Symposia Global Health Series supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The poster, “Highly effective oral amphotericin B formulation against murine visceral leishmaniasis”, will be presented during Poster Session 2 on Tuesday, March 24, 2009. The poster will highlight iCo-009’s activity against visceral leishmaniasis, (VL), a deadly parasitic disease affecting over 12 million people worldwide.
Oral administration of iCo-009 resulted in significant efficacy with no evidence of toxicity in Leishmania donovani-infected mice. iCo-009 formulations at 10 and 20 mg/kg twice a day for five days resulted in 99.5% and 99.8% inhibition of parasitic infection compared with those receiving vehicle control, with some animals exhibiting 100% eradication of liver parasites. iCo-009 has overcome Amphotericin B’s significant physicochemical barriers to absorption and holds promise for the development of a self-administered oral therapy for the treatment of VL.
Funding support for the VL study was received from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), iCo Therapeutics Inc., and the Consortium for Parasitic Drug Development (CPDD). Authors: S Thornton; P Gershkovich; X Zhu; R Tidwell; K Werbovetz; E Wasan; K Wasan; J Clement.
A manuscript detailing the results and methodology has been accepted in The Journal of Infectious Diseases and is currently In Press.
About iCo-009
In animal models, oral administration of iCo-009 has been shown to result in blood levels that are comparable to a known IV Amphotericin B product currently on the market. In both Aspergillus fumigatus and Candida albicans rat models, iCo-009 has also shown significant antifungal activity with no observable kidney toxicity as assessed by plasma creatinine concentrations. iCo-009 was developed by Drs. Kishor & Ellen Wasan at the University of British Columbia. iCo Therapeutics acquired the worldwide exclusive rights to iCo-009 from UBC in May 2008.
