Rabbit milk drug to combat HAE

The clinical trial results of Rhucin, a drug for the treatment of Hereditary Angieoedema (HAE), will be presented at a press conference in London on 30 August.

Biotech company Pharming Group NV has completed an interim analysis of its European randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind clinical study designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Rhucin.

Pharming says none of the HAE patients receiving Rhucin showed a relapse of their attack, or any treatment-related adverse events during the study.

"We are extremely pleased with the outcome of this analysis," said Dr Bruno Giannetti, chief operations officer of Pharming.

"The data confirm the results obtained earlier in open label studies and show that Rhucin is a very fast acting product that could be of great therapeutic benefit for patients with HAE.

Rhucin is a recombinant human C1 esterase inhibitor developed in the milk of transgenic rabbits.

HAE is a human genetic disorder caused by a shortage of C1 inhibitor activity, resulting in episodes of edema. The disease is characterised by acute attacks of painful, and in some cases fatal, swelling of several soft tissues (edema), which may last up to five days when untreated.

In the Western world, approximately 1 in 30,000 individuals suffers from hereditary angioedema, having an average of seven acute attacks per year.

"The product has an excellent safety profile based on the results of various studies in which, in total, well over 100 infusions were given to subjects," said Giannetti.

"Importantly, no relapses of any of the attacks occurred."