CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and HERZLIYA PITUACH, Israel,
Oct. 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/
-- Immune Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: IMNP; "Immune" or "the
Company") announces that Dr. Tomer
Adar, a gastro-enterologist at the Institute for Digestive
Diseases at Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Israel, is presenting today at the United
European Gastro-Enterology week in Vienna, Austria an abstract entitled "The
importance of intestinal eotaxin-1 - Eosinophil axis in
inflammatory bowel disease, Results of a prospective observational
study." The study was supported in part by an unrestricted grant
from Immune.
Professor Eran Goldin, Chairman of the Institute for
Digestive Diseases at Shaare Zedek Medical Center, part of
the Hebrew University School of Medicine
in Jerusalem, Israel,
commented: "This prospective clinical observational study
demonstrates the pivotal role of eotaxin-1 in both Ulcerative
Colitis and Crohn's Disease. Ongoing and future clinical trials
will assess the relevance of selecting patients based on high
eotaxin-1 tissue levels to optimize treatment response with
anti-eotaxin 1 drugs such as Bertilimumab."
According to the abstract presented by Professor Goldin's group,
this observational clinical study demonstrates elevated tissue
Eotaxin-1 levels in both Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease,
especially in more severe, active disease. The increase in tissue
but not in serum eotaxin-1 levels suggests its importance as a
local mediator of mucosal inflammation. The correlation between
tissue eotaxin-1 and tissue eosinophilia in active disease, marks
its central role in mediating local inflammation. and also suggests
that its role in the pathogenesis of Crohn's Disease is not
restricted to eosinophil recruitment.
A previous study, supported in part by a National Institute of
Health grant and published on December, 18, 2013 in PlosOne by
Professor Keith Wilson at
Vanderbilt University Medical Center,
highlighted eotaxin-1 as an etiologic factor and therapeutic target
in Ulcerative Colitis.
Coburn LA, Horst SN, Chaturvedi R, Brown CT, Allaman MM, et al.
(2013) High-Throughput Multi-Analyte Luminex Profiling Implicates
Eotaxin-1 in Ulcerative Colitis. PLoS ONE 8(12): e82300.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0082300
About Ulcerative Colitis
Ulcerative colitis is a chronic, inflammatory
immune-related disorder limited to the large bowel (colon and
rectum) and only affects the inner lining of the colon. The main
symptom is diarrhea that is generally bloody and may be associated
with abdominal pain. Loss of appetite and subsequent weight loss
are common, as is fatigue. Severe bleeding may result in anemia.
Ulcerative colitis can be debilitating and sometimes can lead to
life-threatening complications. The symptoms of ulcerative colitis
tend to come and go, with fairly long periods in between flare-ups
in which patients may experience no distress at all. Major
surgery is often involved, and can cure the disease.
About Crohn's Disease
Crohn's disease is an immune-related, chronic
inflammatory condition (auto-immune) that can involve any part of
the gastrointestinal tract, but most frequently affects the end of
the small bowel and the beginning of the large bowel. In Crohn's
disease, all layers of the intestine may be involved and there can
be normal healthy bowel between patches of diseased bowel. Symptoms
include persistent diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever, and
occasionally, rectal bleeding. Fatigue, loss of appetite and weight
loss also may occur. There is no cure for the disease.
About Immune Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Immune Pharmaceuticals Inc. applies a personalized approach to
treatment, developing novel, highly targeted antibody therapeutics
to improve the lives of patients with inflammatory diseases and
cancer. The Company's lead product candidate, bertilimumab,
is in clinical development for moderate to severe Ulcerative
Colitis as well as Bullous Pemphigoid, an orphan auto-immune
dermatological condition. Immune licensed worldwide rights for
systemic indications of bertilimumab from iCo Therapeutics (TSX:
ICO; OTCQX: ICOTF) in June 2011, while iCo retained rights to
all ophthalmic indications. iCo originally licensed the exclusive
world-wide rights to bertilimumab in 2006 from MedImmune, the
Global Research and Development Arm of AstraZeneca. Immune's
pipeline also includes NanomAbs®, antibody nanoparticle conjugates,
for the targeted delivery of chemotherapeutics, and Amiket™, a
Neuropathic Pain drug candidate ready for Phase III. Amiket has
received Orphan Drug Designation for Post Herpetic Neuralgia.
For more information, visit Immune's website
at www.immunepharmaceuticals.com, the content of which is not
a part of this press release.
Erik Penser Bankaktiebolag is engaged as Immune's Certified
Adviser on NASDAQ OMX First North Premier.
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actual results or developments to differ materially include: the
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associated with our ability to continue to meet our obligations
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for bertilimumab or AmiKet™ will not be successful; the risk that
bertilimumab, AmiKet™ or compounds arising from our NanomAb®
program will not receive regulatory approval or achieve significant
commercial success; the risk that we will not be able to find a
partner to help conduct the Phase III trials for AmiKet™ on
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product candidates that appeared promising in early research and
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which could turn out to be wrong due to inaccurate assumptions,
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SOURCE Immune Pharmaceuticals Inc.