Progenity Inc. (NASDAQ: PROG) has shared an oral presentation delivered by Dr. Bram Verstockt at the 34th Belgian Week of Gastroenterology on February 9, 2022. Verstockt presented important data showing the relationship between clinical outcomes and drug levels in the colon in the study of tofacitinib.
Data presented showing how tissue exposure correlates with endoscopic improvement
Dr Verstockt, the lead author, presented the data showing the correlation between endoscopic improvement and mucosal exposure in patients with ulcerative colitis that received tofacitinib in an oral presentation entitled, “Tofacitinib tissue exposure correlates with endoscopic outcome.”
These findings support the idea that delivering tofacitinib directly to the location of disease could enhance patient outcomes. In clinical studies with PGN-600, this will be investigated further to see if Progenity’s focused strategy can boost mucosal exposure while lowering systemic exposure.
Chief Executive Officer of Progenity, Adi Mohanty, said “With this technology, we anticipate successful delivery of higher therapeutic doses directly to the mucosa while avoiding current issues with toxicity due to systemic uptake. We thank the clinical teams responsible for this independent study, in particular those at IBD Leuven and Amsterdam UMC, for their excellent work toward our shared goal of better therapeutic efficacy for IBD patients.”
DDS enables the delivery of medication to target areas in the gut
The company’s Drug Delivery System (DDS) is an orally administered capsule developed to deliver medications to specific areas of the gut to improve inflammatory bowel disease treatment (IBD). Existing therapies for the 1.8 million individuals in the U suffering from IBD are ineffective, owing to difficulties in safely achieving the required drug concentrations.
Progenity is creating PGN-600 for ulcerative colitis. PGN-600 comprises an oral liquid formula of tofacitinib administered to the colon through the DDS capsule. Compared to a typical oral dose, the firm has demonstrated preclinically in dogs that effective targeted delivery with PGN-600 can result in lower drug concentrations in blood and raised drug concentration in tissue at least 25 times greater along the tract of the colon. PGN-600 is expected to enter a phase 1 clinical study in late 2022.
