Corbus Pharmaceuticals has received the Development Award presented by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, along with $25 million to support an upcoming study, reports Financial Buzz. Corbus plans to test out a new drug fast tracked by the FDA called lenabasum and see its results with patients currently diagnosed with cystic fibrosis (CF).
Cystic fibrosis is a rare genetic diseased caused by the inheritance of two mutated genes (CFTR). The genes are responsible for regulating the salt and water flow from cells in both the digestive and respiratory systems. The disease is known to affect about 30,000 individuals in the United States and 75,000 in the world. Additionally, it slowly deteriorates ones lunges, causing dysfunction and inflammation which can all result in organ failure, onset of other diseases, and even death. To learn more about CF, click here.
Corbus Pharmaceuticals specializes in developing and commercializing medical therapies for acute rare disease. They perform phase 3 clinical trials and currently are going to use the money received from the award to support their test of lenabasum. They hope this drug will help with inflammation and halt symptoms brought on by CF.
It will be a 6-month trial looking at 415 different CF patients, who are 12 years or older and at risk for developing pulmonary exacerbations. They will be looking closely at the rate of pulmonary exacerbations, since they believe it is very closely related to level of intensity a patient with CF faces.
Awarding Corbus with this honor just goes to show how confident they are in the company, and specifically the team that will be conducting the study. While a decent amount of awareness has been brought about for cystic fibrosis, there are still many unmet needs these patients face on the daily. They hope to identify correlations with the pulmonary exacerbations, intensity, and symptoms, and develop a way to treatthe cause.