Parkinson’s disease currently affects 4.1 million patients globally which is projected to rise to 8.7 million by 2030. A patient with Parkinson’s disease progressively loses the ability to make the neurotransmitter dopamine, the mediator of the control of movement. There is no cure for Parkinson’s disease, and no treatment can prevent the disease from progressing, however current treatments can usually ease symptoms. The current treatment market for Parkinson’s disease is approximately US$3.5 billion. ProSavin® has the potential to address an unmet medical need in Parkinson’s disease, offering long-lasting benefit from a single administration with an excellent safety profile.
ProSavin® is a gene-based treatment for Parkinson’s disease developed by Oxford Biomedica (England). ProSavin® uses the Company’s LentiVector® gene delivery technology to deliver the genes for three enzymes that are required for the synthesis of dopamine. The product is administered locally to the region of the brain called the striatum, converting cells into a replacement dopamine factory within the brain, thus replacing the patient’s own lost source of the neurotransmitter.
Oxford BioMedica plc, a leading gene therapy company, announces new data from the on-going Phase 1/2 trial of ProSavin for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Three-month data from the third patient cohort show that ProSavin continues to be safe and well-tolerated following treatment with a 2x dose using an enhanced administration technique developed by the Company. The enhanced technique has been shown to reduce the surgical delivery time, will facilitate higher dosing and has the potential to provide better reproducibility of administration as study centers expand.
Oxford BioMedica announced that new data from the on-going Phase I/II trial of ProSavin(R) for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease were presented at the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT) 14th Annual Meeting held in Seattle, USA by Professor Stephane Palfi, Principal Investigator at the Henri Mondor Hospital in Paris, on Saturday 21 May 2011.
Stuart Naylor, Chief Scientific Officer of Oxford BioMedica, said: “The ProSavin(R) data set is extremely promising in terms of the improvements we are seeing across multiple endpoints. With patient diary measures further supporting the positive impact on patients’ lives, these data underline the potential for this novel approach to address the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Our LentiVector(R) platform technology is designed to treat chronic, degenerative diseases and the ProSavin(R) results to date demonstrate the long-term benefits associated with a single administration.”
