AnaMar to focus on severe inflammation and fibrosis

Swedish privately-held biopharma company AnaMar says it will focus pipeline development on severe inflammation and fibrotic conditions associated with high levels of clinical morbidity and mortality, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

Owe Garlin, AnaMar's chief executive commented: "Today's announcement of AnaMar's strategic realignment follows confirmation of a correlation between serum concentration and clinical response from subgroup analyses of our recently completed Phase IIa study evaluating AnaMar's 5-HT2B receptor antagonist, AMAP102, for treatment of mild to moderate osteoarthritis (OA) pain. Our analyses also indicated that patients taking AMAP102 required less rescue medicine as compared to placebo patients. The clinical response appears to be more pronounced in hand OA patients, possibly reflecting a more inflammatory disease phenotype. AMAP102 was generally well tolerated and reported side effects were considered to be non-serious and reversible. Overall, we believe our Phase IIa AMAP102 OA study results support the potential of AnaMar's peripheral 5-HT receptor targeting platform and we intend to focus future pipeline development on severe inflammatory indications and life-threatening fibrosis."

Mr Garlin continued: "We are also evaluating AM1030-CREAM, containing a novel 5-HT2B receptor antagonist specifically selected for its anti-inflammatory properties and cytokine reduction profile. Clinical dosing in our Phase I/IIa placebo-controlled, topical SAD/MAD, safety, tolerability and PK/PD study was commenced in November 2014, and will explore AM1030's suppression of inflammation and itching in atopic dermatitis patients."