Circassia: House dust mite allergy treatment meets primary endpoint in phase II clinical study

Sep 12 2013

Circassia Ltd, a specialty biopharmaceutical company focused on allergy, today announced successful results from a phase II clinical study of its house dust mite allergy treatment (House Dust Mite-Synthetic Peptide Immuno-Regulatory Epitope [HDM-SPIRE] based on Circassia’s ToleroMune® technology). Patients who received four doses of the treatment over 12 weeks had significantly improved allergy symptoms one year after the start of the trial compared with placebo, meeting the study’s long-term primary endpoint. The HDM-SPIRE treatment was extremely well tolerated.

“These results in house dust mite allergy are particularly exciting as they reflect the significant long-term improvements we achieved with a similar short course of our Cat-SPIRE allergy treatment,” said Steve Harris, Circassia’s Chief Executive. “In the US, Europe and many other countries house dust mites are responsible for more allergies than any other allergen, causing year-round suffering for millions of people. Reducing patients’ symptoms over the long-term is an important goal, and these results demonstrate the potential of our ToleroMune® technology to revolutionise allergy therapy by achieving this with a simple short course of treatment.”

The double-blind, randomized trial was conducted in Toronto, Canada, where 172 volunteers with confirmed house dust mite allergy received one of four treatment regimens or placebo. Investigators measured patients’ allergy symptoms when exposed to house dust mite allergens, at baseline and during the 12-month study. Those who received a short course of four doses over 12 weeks had a significant improvement in their symptoms one year after starting the treatment compared with those on placebo (p=0.02). All treatment regimens were well tolerated, with a safety profile similar to placebo. Circassia has submitted the study results for presentation at a leading scientific conference.