Cinryze achieves 30 min symptom improvement

US drugmaker ViroPharma presented strong data from an ongoing, open-label study of Cinryze (human C1 inhibitor) showing that it has successfully treated all types of acute hereditary angioedema attacks seen in the trial so far.

These patients saw improvement in symptoms at a median time of 30 minutes post treatment, and 93.4% reported improvement in symptoms within four hours, regardless of how many times they had previously received Cinryze. None of the subjects treated for laryngeal attacks required hospitalization or intubation, according to data presented at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology 2008 annual meeting in Seattle, Washington.

"The open-label extension study findings indicated Cinryze was well tolerated in this study, and successfully treated all of the types of acute HAE attacks seen during the trial," said Bruce Zuraw, of the University of San Diego, who presented the data. "These results recognize the potential for Cinryze to treat acute attacks of HAE," he added.