ESBATech's OA drug enters Ph I/IIa trial

ESBATech AG, a Swiss developer of antibody fragment therapeutics, has initiated a Phase I/IIa trial of its tumor necrosis factor-alpha  antibody fragment ESBA105 in osteoarthritis.

This double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study is designed to  investigate the safety, tolerability and efficacy on pain with ESBA105  applied locally via intra-articular administration to patients with  severely painful OA of the knee. The multicenter trial is being  conducted at various sites across Switzerland.

Company chief executive Dominik Escher said: "OA is being increasingly  recognized as driven by episodes of local inflammation and thus,  TNF-alpha represents a highly promising target. TNF-alpha is  excessively generated in OA by chondrocytes, which are located within  the cartilage. Thus, to achieve disease-modifying activity, it is  expected that the drug needs to penetrate into the cartilage, which  cannot be achieved by the currently-marketed TNF inhibitors. With  ESBA105, we observe a very efficient penetration into the cartilage."  He added that these features of the compound could make it the first  disease-modifying OA drug.