Immuron (ASX:IMC) has announced it has successfully completed the first stage of its colitis preclinical program at the University of Zurich in Switzerland.
The company said it is preparing to move forward to the next development phase, in accordance with the research program.
According to Immuron, IMM-124E showed a significant positive effect on all levels of evaluation within the Acute Model including: Clinical parameters, tissue level parameters (macroscopic and histologic) as well as Immunological biomarkers.
The current research program has been constructed in a three-stage process, starting with an Acute Model aimed at measuring the biologic activity of IMM-124E for the treatment of Colitis.
Immuron, together with Professor Gerhard Rogler and his team, have evaluated the results and determined the combination of all results showed a significant and clear beneficial biological effect of IMM-124E within the model.
They have jointly agreed to move forward to the next stage of the pre-clinical studies.
“The accumulation of the data coming out of this first stage of our three-stage comprehensive research program has given us confidence that there is a true biological effect of IMM-124E within the Acute model," said Professor Rogler.
"This has come as a surprise to some of us that such a safe and simple concept would show efficacy. All of us are eager to continue the research program and obtain more data. We have been taking part in leading Colitis research for many years and believe that new approaches, such as the one offered by IMM-124E, are critical for the future of Colitis therapy."
Immuron’s Senior VP Head of Medical, Dr Dan Peres, said, “This preliminary data joins our existing body of evidence to show that Immuron's platform has great potential within Colitis as well as other blockbuster indications. We had previously conducted pre-clinical work using IMM-124E to evaluate its applicability for Colitis showing similar results, but we view the work done at University of Zurich as the pillar for all future research and development in this area."
Colitis, which mainly consists of Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease, is a chronic and often debilitating group of inflammatory bowel diseases that affects millions of people worldwide.
Thomas Liquard, CEO of Immuron, added, “We believe that these results support belief that we are on the right track with our carefully prioritised portfolio of clinical programs and further demonstrate that IMM-124E is a powerful anti-inflammatory agent with beneficial effect on the health of gastrointestinal('GI') organs that are damaged by inflammation including the liver, the pancreas and the GI tract. Immuron’s Board and management team believe in generating fundamentally robust science that has the potential to generate world-class data which can then further support the development of valuable, life-saving therapeutics. This comprehensive pre-clinical Colitis program has been carefully designed with that approach in mind.”