Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARNA) issued a press release stating that the enrollment of the ralinepag phase-2 clinical trials, is now closed, with 60 patients enrolled worldwide. It should be noted here that the drug has been developed as a treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension. The announcement also revealed that the trial would be carried out for a period of 22-weeks, to evaluate the effectiveness of the drug, as well as its tolerability and safety, through a placebo-controlled, double blind trial.
The CEO of ARNA, Amit Munshi, claimed that this was an important step in the development of the drug and hints at the company’s focus on its product pipeline. He also stated that they expect to see some results, by mid-year, which would confirm their hypothesis. Mr. Munshi also expressed hope that the drug would achieve a best-in-class profile for the patients. Ralinepag, is an orally used IP receptor and an investigational new drug candidate, being developed by Arena for the treatment of vascular diseases.
The phase-1 of the trials have shown the compound to have an half-life of approximately 25-hours. The management has claimed that this is an indication that the drug can be used once or twice, on a daily basis, by the patients. Moreover, Ralinepag has already been awarded the orphan drug status, by the FDA, for the treatment of PAH.
In addition to this, Arena Pharmaceuticals has already delivered a total of four presentations, this month. All of the four presentations were conducted on December 9, 2016, in Orlando, Florida, at the “Advances In Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Conference”, conducted by the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation. Furthermore, the data from the presentations would also be published in the “Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Journal”. This was the second conference attended by the company, less than a month’s time. Earlier on November 29, Mr. Munshi represented the company at the Piper Jaffray Healthcare Conference, held in New York. The CEO provided a corporate overview of Area Pharmaceuticals, at the annual event.
Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARNA) closed at a share price of $1.41, at the end of the December 9 trading session, 2.92% higher than the session before.
