Xenetic Biosciences (LON:XEN) has begun early stage human trials of MyeloXen, a potential vaccine for multiple sclerosis (MS).
The phase I/IIa study taking place in Russia will recruit 26 volunteers – six healthy volunteers and 20 patients – and will be carried out in three parts.
The first will involve the six healthy recruits, followed by a dose escalation phase on a further 10, and then a study of a final 10 who will be on a dosing regimen gleaned from part two.
The results of pre-clinical studies recently published in The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Journal revealed that MyeloXen delivered improved responses when compared with Teva’s Copaxone, one of the MS market's leading therapies with annual sales of US$2.6bn.
Xenetic chief executive Scott Maguire: "The commencement of this MyeloXen trial represents two pivotal 'firsts' for our company.
“It is the very first vaccine candidate developed under our ImuXen technology to enter human clinical trials.
“It is also the first product candidate to emerge from our collaboration with Pharmsynthez. I expect that it will not be the last on either count.”