Trimesta
Adeona is developing Trimesta (estriol), an investigational oral drug for the treatment of relapsing- remitting multiple sclerosis. Estriol has been approved and marketed for over 40 years throughout Europe and Asia for the treatment of post-menopausal hot flashes. It has never been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for any indication. Estriol is a hormone that is produced by the placenta during pregnancy. Maternal levels of estriol increase in a linear fashion throughout the third trimester of pregnancy until birth, whereupon they abruptly fall to near zero.
It has been scientifically documented that pregnant women with certain autoimmune diseases experience a spontaneous reduction of disease symptoms during pregnancy, especially in the third trimester. The list of autoimmune diseases that have been seen to improve during pregnancy includes multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, thyroiditis, uveitis, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis with peripheral arthritis, and psoriatic arthritis. It has further been scientifically documented that these same pregnant women have high rates of disease relapse post-partum, particularly in the immediate three-month post-partum period.
The PRIMS study (Pregnancy in Multiple Sclerosis), a landmark clinical study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, followed 254 women with multiple sclerosis during 269 pregnancies and for up to one year after delivery. The PRIMS study demonstrated that relapse rates were significantly reduced by 71 percent (p < 0.001) through the third trimester of pregnancy from pre-baseline levels and relapse rates then increased by 120 percent (p < 0.001) during the first three months post-partum before returning to pre-pregnancy rates.
The inventor of Trimesta has conducted scientific research on the role that estriol plays in creating immunologic privilege to the fetus in order to prevent its rejection by the mother. She believes that estriol’s immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory properties may explain the remissions seen in certain Th1-mediated autoimmune diseases during pregnancy. Based upon these insights, this scientist has conducted clinical trials of Trimesta in female patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.
Trimesta grant funding
The preclinical and clinical development of Trimesta has been primarily financed by a $5 million grant from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in partnership with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s Southern California chapter, with support from the National Institutes of Health. In January of 2010, it was announced that an additional $860,440 in grant funding had been received through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act allowing the number of clinical sites currently enrolling patients in the clinical study to increase from 7 clinical sites to 16. The rate of enrollment in the clinical trial has been positively impacted through the addition of the 9 new clinical sites.
Trimesta market opportunity
Multiple sclerosis is a progressive neurological disease in which the body loses the ability to transmit messages along central nervous system nerve cells, leading to a loss of muscle control, paralysis, and, in some cases, death. According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, currently, more than 2.5 million people worldwide (approximately 400,000 patients in the United States), mainly young adults aged 20-50, are afflicted with multiple sclerosis and two to three times as many women are affected than men. Relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis is the most common disease course at the time of diagnosis according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Approximately, 85% of people with multiple sclerosis are initially diagnosed with the relapsing-remitting form, compared to 10-15% with progressive forms.
Multiple sclerosis costs the United States more than $9.5 billion annually in medical care and lost productivity according to the Society for Neuroscience. The average annual cost of multiple sclerosis is approximately $44,000 to $95,625 per person. These figures include lost wages and healthcare costs (care giving, hospital and physician costs, pharmaceutical therapy and nursing home care). The cost of treating patients with later-stage progressive forms of multiple sclerosis is approximately $65,000 per year per person.
There are currently 7 Food and Drug Administration-approved therapies for the treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis: Betaseron®, Rebif®, Avonex®, Novantrone®, Copaxone®, Tysabri® and AmpyraTM. These therapies provide only a modest benefit for patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis and therefore serve to only delay progression of the disease. All of these drugs except Ampyra™ require frequent (daily, weekly & monthly) injections (or infusions) on an ongoing basis and are associated with unpleasant side effects (such as flu-like symptoms), high rates of non-compliance among users, and eventual loss of efficacy due to the appearance of resistance in approximately 30% of patients.
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