INV102 being well tolerated in asthma trial: Invion

Invion (ASX:IVX) has announced that its airway disease treatment candidate, INV102, is proving to be well tolerated during a phase II trial.

The US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded trial involves evaluating the use of INV102 (nadolol) in patients with mild asthma.

Blinded data from the first 21 patients to have completed the study shows that patients have tolerated titration to their highest dose without severe adverse events.

Patients have shown no pattern of cardiovascular or respiratory effects during four hours of observation after each titration dose.

Importantly, no pattern of adverse events has emerged, even though nadolol is at present contraindicated in asthma patients due to risks associated with worsening bronchospasm.

Invion Chief Medical Officer Dr Mitchell Glass said the company is “very encouraged that nadolol appears to be following the same pattern as seen in early ... studies in chronic heart failure - that with careful titration to a maximum tolerated dose, side effects can be avoided”.

Demonstrating this is a prerequisite to a contraindication being reversed, he said.

“Initial studies ... showed improvement in patients’ airway hyper-responsiveness after nadolol use. These data from the current NIMA trial strongly reinforce that nadolol may be given safely and effectively to patients with asthma after dose titration.”

The phase II trial is scheduled for completion in 2015.

Invion (ASX:IVX) shares were trading 1.27% lower at $0.078 as of around 2 pm on Wednesday.