Dublin, Ireland, 14th May 2008
AGI Therapeutics to present Rezular™ pharmacological
and clinical findings at DDW in San Diego -- 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., Tuesday
20 May, 2008 --
AGI Therapeutics plc ("AGI" or the "Company") (AIM,
IEX: AGI), a speciality pharmaceutical company focused on gastrointestinal
drug products, today announces it will present three poster presentations
at Digestive Disease Week (DDW) at the San Diego Convention Centre on
Tuesday 20 May, 2008.
DDW is the largest annual meeting in the fields of gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy and gastrointestinal surgery with a broad international attendance of physicians, researchers and healthcare industry representatives.
The three presentations will be in poster format and will be presented
between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. PDT on Tuesday 20 May at the 'Novel Diagnostics
and Therapeutics in Intestinal Disease, Pharmacotherapy and The Intestine'
track. All three posters relate to Rezular (arverapamil, AGI-003) which
is being developed by the Company as a gastrointestinal-selective agent
for the treatment of diarrhoea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-D).
The titles of the presentations are:
1) Pharmacology of R-verapamil: A novel therapy in IBS
2) Evaluating the impact of baseline abdominal pain/discomfort scores on the response to Rezular in IBS
3) Correlation of different symptom metrics to severity of illness scale in the evaluation of IBS
Commenting on the presentations, Dr. John Devane, CEO of AGI, said:
"We welcome this opportunity to present some of the important findings from our ongoing evaluation of Rezular at the single largest gastroenterology meeting in the world. This not only allows us engage with physicians and researchers active in IBS treatment and research, but also increases the awareness of Rezular in the wider medical and pharmaceutical community".
Contact Information
AGI Therapeutics
David Kelly, Chief Financial Officer
Tel: +353 1 449 3254
Financial Dynamics - UK
Deborah Scott/Lara Mott
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7269 7182
Financial Dynamics - Ireland
Aisling Garvey
Tel: +353 1 663 3607
Piper Jaffray Limited
Neil Mackison
Will Carnwath
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3142 8700
Davy
John Frain
Tel: +353 (1) 614 8761
Notes to Editors:
About Rezular™
Rezular is an orally administered triple-action intestinal regulator, a first-in-class mechanism for the treatment of IBS-D. Rezular contains arverapamil, the pure R-isomer form of the racemic drug verapamil. Unlike the currently available commercial forms of verapamil (a racemic mixture of two isomers, R and S), Rezular shows a dominant activity in treating the symptoms of IBS-D without the traditional cardiovascular actions exerted by the S-isomer component of the racemic drug. The efficacy and safety of Rezular in IBS patients has already been established in a Phase II trial, the preliminary results of which were reported by the Company in 2006 and presented at the 2007 Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology. Rezular is currently in Phase III clinical trials (ARDIS) for the treatment of IBS-D.
About IBS-D
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional disorder that comprises a cluster of gastrointestinal symptoms which are likely to be life long and which affect between 10% and 20% of the population in developed markets. IBS remains the most common diagnosis made by gastroenterologists and can lead to a substantial reduction in patients' quality of life, accompanied by considerable socio-economic and psychological consequences. Altered intestinal motility is a major component of IBS and patients are diagnosed and sub-typed according to their predominant symptom of bowel disturbance. Diarrhoea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-D) is estimated to occur in one-third of all IBS patients. IBS-D represents a significant unmet medical need as there are currently few safe and effective therapeutic options available to these patients..
About AGI
AGI is a speciality pharmaceutical company which is focused on the development and commercialisation of differentiated drug products for gastro-intestinal (GI) diseases and disorders. AGI's common shares are listed on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange (AIM) and on the Irish Enterprise Exchange of the Irish Stock Market (IEX) as AGI.
The Company has a portfolio of product candidates derived from its Known
Molecular Entity (KME) approach to drug re-profiling and development.
The Company's lead product candidate, RezularTM, is an orally administered
triple-action intestinal regulator, a first-in-class mechanism for the
treatment of diarrhoea predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS-D).
KME is a re-profiling methodology used by the Company to identify existing
therapeutic drugs which typically have been marketed for a number of years,
have established safety profiles and can be developed for new clinical
indications or with improved profiles in their existing clinical indications.
In this way, the Company seeks to reduce the risk, time and cost of new
product development as compared to the development of new chemical entities.
AGI is developing a range of product candidates to treat a variety of prevalent GI diseases and disorders, including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), dyspeptic symptoms, gastroparesis, ulcerative colitis, gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) and diarrhoea-related conditions such as chemotherapy-induced diarrhoea (CID). The Company is targeting areas of the GI therapeutic drug products market for its product candidates where there are currently unmet medical needs or where the effectiveness of existing drug therapies can be further improved.
The Company has five active clinical stage product candidates which are either isomers or new drug delivery formulations of existing approved drugs and which have established safety and tolerability profiles in their currently approved clinical indications.
For further information please see www.agitherapeutics.com
Statements contained within this press release may contain forward-looking comments which involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to vary from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify such forward-looking statements by terminology such as 'may', 'will', 'could', 'forecasts', 'expects', 'plans', 'anticipates', 'believes', 'estimates', 'predicts', 'potential', or 'continue'. Predictions and forward-looking references in this press release are subject to the satisfactory progress of research which is, by nature, unpredictable. Forward projections reflect management's best estimates based on information available at the time of issue.