According to a story from BioSpace, the biopharmaceutical company Insmed Inc. has recently announced favorable results from its phase II clinical trial. The clinical trial is testing the company’s investigational drug candidate INS1007 as a treatment for bronchiectasis not associated with cystic fibrosis. The results of this study bode well for the future development of this therapy in this indication.
About Bronchiectasis
Bronchiectasis is a disease of the lung which is most characterized by the permanent enlargement of certain areas of the lung’s air passages. This illness can be both acquired or congenital. It often appears as the result of other diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and many others. Heroin, alcoholism, and inhalation of toxic gases like ammonia can also increase the risk. There are also several genetic disorders and conditions that increase the risk, such as immunodeficiency, Marfan syndrome, and Young’s syndrome. In many cases, the cause is unknown. Symptoms include coughing up mucus, lung infections, clubbed digits, wheezing, chest pain, coughing up blood, and shortness of breath. Treatments include inhaled steroids, postural drainage, antibiotics, and surgery. The exact frequency of this disease is not well known. To learn more about bronchiectasis, click here.
About The Trial
This trial tested a variety of INS1007’s characteristics for this patient population, including pharmacokinetics, efficacy, and safety. INS1007 is classified as an inhibitor of dipeptidyl peptidase 1 (DPP1). A total of 256 adult patients were included in the study. The drug was able to delay the time to first pulmonary exacerbation during the 24 week period of treatment, which was the primary study endpoint. In addition, INS1007 was able to reduce the frequency of these events; patients treated with 10 mg saw the frequency of exacerbations reduced by 36 percent, and those treated with 25 mg saw frequency drop by 25 percent.
These encouraging results suggest that this experimental drug has the potential to play an important role as a treatment for this debilitating lung disease. The findings decisively support the continued development of this therapy for brochiectasis and potentially other related conditions also.
