RENO, Nev., Jan. 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BioVie Inc., (NASDAQ: BIVI) (“BioVie” or the “Company”) a clinical-stage company developing innovative drug therapies for the treatment of advanced liver disease and neurological and neurodegenerative disorders today announced the treatment of the first patient in the Company’s Phase 2 clinical trial assessing the potential pro-motoric impact of its NE3107 asset in Parkinson’s disease patients.
The NM201 study (NCT05083260) is a double-blind, placebo-controlled, safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics study in Parkinson's disease (PD). Participants will be treated with carbidopa/levodopa and NE3107 or placebo. Forty patients with a defined PD medication “off state” will be randomized 1:1 placebo to: active NE3107 20 mg twice daily for 28 days. Safety assessments will look at standard measures of patient health and potential for drug-drug interactions affecting L-dopa pharmacokinetics and activity. Exploratory efficacy assessments will use the Motor Disease Society Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating (MDS-UPDRS) parts 1-3, ON/OFF Diary, and Non-Motor Symptom Scale. Topline results are expected for the NM201 trial in mid-2022.
“Our NM201 study is designed to be an efficient, cost-effective assessment of the safety and pharmacokinetics profile, as well as the potential efficacy of NE3017 for the treatment of PD,” said Cuong V. Do, Chief Executive Officer of BioVie. “Enrollment of the first patient in our human development program is a significant milestone for BioVie, and we look forward to data readout for NM201 in mid-2022.”
In preclinical studies, NE3107 was shown to improve motor symptoms as effectively as L-dopa. When NE3107 was administered in combination with L-dopa, the combination demonstrated greater pro-motoric activity than NE3107 or L-dopa given alone. Furthermore, NE3107 in combination with L-dopa reduced the severity of L-dopa induced dyskinesia (LID) without decreasing the beneficial effect of the drug on motor symptoms. NE3107 treatment in monkeys preserved roughly twice as many dopaminergic neurons as vehicle-treated animals, suggesting that NE3107 may have neuroprotective properties.
Neuroinflammation, insulin resistance, and oxidative stress are common features in the major neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s Disease (PD), Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), frontotemporal dementia and ALS. NE3107 is an oral small molecule, blood-brain permeable, compound with anti-inflammatory, insulin sensitizing, and ERK-binding properties that may allow it to selectively inhibit ERK- and NF?B-stimulated inflammation. No major safety signals have been observed in nonclinical safety studies, and the NE3107 adverse event profile has not differed from that of placebo in clinical studies conducted to date.
NE3107’s potential to inhibit neuroinflammation and insulin resistance forms the basis for the Company’s work testing the molecule in AD and PD patients. The company has an active Phase 3 trial studying NE3107 in Alzheimer’s Disease that is expected to have topline results by the end of 2022.
