After an overall market correction garb some shares.
New activist and cell gene Therapies will be hot plays going foreword.
NEW YORK and CLEVELAND, Dec. 09, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Abeona Therapeutics Inc. (ABEO), a fully-integrated leader in gene and cell therapy, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has removed its clinical hold and provided clearance to proceed with the VIITAL™ study, the Company’s pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial evaluating EB-101 for the treatment of recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB). The FDA removed the clinical hold following the Company’s submission of additional data points on transport stability of EB-101 to clinical sites. Abeona expects to initiate the VIITAL™ study in first quarter of 2020.
“The Abeona team has worked diligently to provide a prompt and thorough response to the FDA, enabling us to proceed with our pivotal Phase 3 trial for EB-101,” said João Siffert, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Abeona. “Recently published long-term follow up data from our Phase 1/2 trial leaves us increasingly confident that EB-101 can provide durable healing for large, chronic wounds that afflict many RDEB patients. We are now focused on initiating the VIITAL™ study in the first quarter of 2020. The success in building and qualifying a state-of-the-art GMP manufacturing facility also represents a critical step toward bringing this novel product to patients in dire need of effective treatment.”
With two to five years of follow-up, data from a Phase 1/2 clinical trial conducted by Stanford University evaluating EB-101 showed that the gene-corrected cell therapy provided durable wound healing for RDEB patients, including for the largest, most challenging wounds that constitute the majority of wounds in this population.
About The VIITAL™ Study
The VIITAL™ Phase 3 study will be a multi-center, randomized clinical trial assessing EB-101 in 10 to 15 RDEB patients, with approximately 30 chronic wound sites treated in total. The primary study endpoint will be the proportion of wounds with greater than 50% healing at three months, comparing treated with untreated wound sites on the same patient. Secondary endpoints include the patient’s global impression of change in pain from baseline as well as other patient reported outcomes assessing pain during dressing changes, pain impact and physical function.
About EB-101
EB-101 is an autologous, gene-corrected cell therapy in late-stage clinical development for the treatment of recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB), a rare connective tissue disorder without an approved therapy. Treatment with EB-101 involves using gene transfer to deliver COL7A1 genes into a patient’s own skin cells (keratinocytes) and transplanting them back to the patient to enable normal Type VII collagen expression and facilitate wound healing. In the U.S., Abeona holds Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy, Breakthrough Therapy, and Rare Pediatric designations for EB-101 and Orphan Drug designation in both the U.S.and EU.
