PureTech hails "exciting" results from lung disease trial

Clinical-stage biotech group Puretech Health has announced promising results from the trial of its lung disease treatment deupirfenidone, which the lead investigator hailed as "extremely exciting".

The ELEVATE idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) study was a Phase 2b trial evaluating Puretech's deupirfenidone over 26 weeks, compared with a placebo and one of the two existing standard-of-care treatments for IPF, pirfenidone.

Deupirfenidone, which was administered three times a day at two dose levels, was found to reduce lung function decline to near-physiologic levels over 26 weeks, according to Toby Maher, a professor at the University of Southern California who led the ELEVATE IPF trial. The drug had an effect size, compared with placebo, that was around 50% greater than that seen with pirfenidone.

"Deupirfenidone has the potential to offer patients a highly effective and tolerable treatment option. These are extremely exciting results from a Phase 2b trial, and I am very enthusiastic about the continued development of deupirfenidone," Maher said.

Puretech said the trial achieved its primary endpoint and that there is a 98.5% probability that deupirfenidone was superior to the placebo in slowing the rate of lung function decline in people with IPF.

Commenting on the results, Puretech's co-founder and president Eric Elenko explained that the adoption of currently approved antifibrotics has been limited because of gastrointestinal reactions to standard therapies, which have prevented many patients from starting or maintaining treatment at optimal doses.

"I could not be more pleased that deupirfenidone showed a favourable tolerability profile at both doses evaluated and – most importantly – has demonstrated the potential to offer patients enhanced efficacy at the higher dose," Elenko said.

Puretech's shares were up 5% at 170.87p by 1007 GMT.