Pieris AG's PRS-50 shows in vivo activity

German drug developer Pieris AG says that it has confirmed the functional antagonistic activity of its lead developmental compound PRS-050 which, it added, supports development of the agent for use in drugs with improved penetration into neovascularized tissues.

Pieris explained that the compound, which belongs to the novel class of human binding proteins called the anticalins, has previously shown the ability to inhibit in vitro vascular endothelial growth factor mediated cell-proliferation with favorable potency compared with all currently-approved VEGF inhibitors. The firm added that PRS-50 has now demonstrated such functionality in appropriate in vivo models, data from which will be presented at conferences in Europe and the USA in the next few months.