Lexipafant Starts Phase III For Pancreatitis

British Biotech has advanced a second product into Phase III testing. Lexipafant, a platelet-activating factor (PAF) antagonist, has been entered into a pivotal trial involving 300 patients with acute pancreatitis in up to 15 hospitals in the UK. Primary study endpoints will be patient's organ failure score and the incidence of acute pancreatitis attacks, measured by local and systemic complications of the disease.

In September, British Biotech reported encouraging Phase II study results with lexipafant, which revealed a trend towards improvement in clinical severity and reduction in inflammation when measured by three surrogate markers of inflammation, interleukin-8, IL-6 and E-selectin.