NORFOLK, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ReAlta Life Sciences, Inc. ("ReAlta" or the “Company”), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to saving lives by rebalancing the inflammatory response to address rare and acute inflammatory diseases, today announced that the first patient has been dosed in its Phase 2 study of RLS-0071, the Company’s lead therapeutic candidate, for the treatment of hospitalized patients with moderate to very severe steroid-refractory acute graft-versus-host disease (aGvHD), a serious and often fatal complication following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
“Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is one of the most impactful treatments available for people with cancer, autoimmune disease, sickle cell disease and other life-threatening disorders. However, the procedure can quickly turn into a severe and life-threatening condition for those who are affected by acute graft-versus-host disease in which the transplanted immune cells attack the patient, leading to severe inflammation and tissue damage,” said ReAlta Chief Medical Officer Kenji Cunnion, MD, MPH. “We believe that RLS-0071 has the potential to be a powerful new tool to improve outcomes for individuals with this serious complication of transplantation. We aim to leverage RLS-0071's unique dual mechanism-of-action (MOA) to inhibit unwanted inflammatory side-effects from the donor cells. We are committed to advancing this clinical program on behalf of patients facing steroid-refractory aGvHD.”
Patients with aGvHD who do not respond to standard steroid treatments have limited therapeutic options and face severe inflammation, tissue damage and a high risk of mortality. Each year, approximately 4,000 patients develop steroid-refractory aGvHD within the U.S., EU and Japan.
RLS-0071, an investigational medicine based on the Company’s novel EPICC peptide platform, seeks to address this unmet medical need by capitalizing on its unique dual-targeting MOA to modulate both the complement and innate inflammatory pathways, offering a new hope for patients with this devastating condition. RLS-0071 was recently granted Orphan Drug Designation and Fast Track Designation for the treatment of steroid-refractory aGvHD by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The Company is also currently conducting Phase 2 clinical trials of RLS-0071 in newborns with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) (NCT05778188) and hospitalized patients with acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AE-COPD) (NCT06175065).
About the Study
The Phase 2 study (NCT06343792) is an open-label, prospective, dose-escalation trial to evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, dosing and efficacy of RLS-0071 for the secondary treatment of acute graft-versus-host disease (aGvHD) in hospitalized patients who are steroid-refractory. Participants will receive RLS-0071 at their assigned dose level(s) for 7 or 14 days as either a monotherapy or concurrent with the standard-of-care treatment, ruxolitinib. Primary outcomes measures include safety and overall response rate.
About ReAlta Life Sciences
ReAlta Life Sciences, Inc. is a clinical mid-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to saving lives by rebalancing the inflammatory response to address life threatening rare and acute inflammatory diseases. The Company’s EPICC peptide platform is based on discoveries related to the human astrovirus, HAstV-1, which causes a non-inflammatory, self-limiting gastroenteritis by inhibiting components of the innate immune system – a trait unique among viruses. By inhibiting activation of the complement cascade and two key neutrophil-driven mechanisms of inflammation and host tissue destruction - myeloperoxidase (MPO) and neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), ReAlta’s therapeutic peptides leverage the dual-targeting mechanisms of this human enteric virus – and its millions of years of evolutionary adaptations – to modulate both complement and innate inflammatory pathways. The Company’s pipeline is led by RLS-0071, which has received both Orphan Drug Designation and Fast Track Designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Orphan Drug Designation by the European Medicines Agency, for the treatment of hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), a devastating disease that causes brain damage in oxygen-deprived newborns and is a leading cause of cerebral palsy; Orphan Drug Designation and Fast Track Designation by the FDA for the treatment of acute graft-versus-host disease (aGvHD), a disease associated with bone marrow and stem cell transplants whereby transplanted white blood cells attack the new host in an inflammatory response; and IND clearance by the FDA for the treatment of acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), an inflammatory lung disease characterized by progressive airflow limitations and tissue destruction that makes it challenging for patients to breathe. The company launched in 2018 and is located in Norfolk, Virginia and Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. For more information, please visit www.realtalifesciences.com.
