New Medication Research Study begins, to Treat Secondary Progressive MS

Auckland, 11 November, 2011 – Innate Immunotherapeutics today announced that the dose confirmation part of the company’s Phase 2A trial of drug candidate MIS416 in patients with the progressive form of MS will commence in early January 2012.

The announcement follows the successful conclusion of a dose escalation study in 16 patients with either primary progressive or secondary progressive MS conducted at Primorus Clinical Trials (Christchurch, NZ). The upcoming dose confirmation study will test a potentially therapeutic dose level of MIS416 in 15 patients with secondary progressive MS over a three month period.

Both parts of the 2A study are designed to establish the safety and tolerability of Innate Immunotherapeutics’ immune modulating microparticle and to also establish a dose level to be trialed in a larger scale Phase 2B clinical trial in late 2012.

The current trial is being partly sponsored by the U.S. National MS Society Fast Forward programme in collaboration with Merck Serono and has also attracted significant support from the New Zealand Government’s Ministry of Science and Innovation.

Innate Immunotherapeutics’ CEO, Simon Wilkinson, said the Company was delighted to have successfully completely the first part of the study and paid tribute to the patients and trial centre staff. “This study commenced just two weeks after the major earthquake that struck Christchurch on September 4th last year. Since that time there have been over 8,000 aftershocks including major quakes on Feb 22nd and June 13th. Despite the significant disruption caused to the Christchurch infrastructure and people’s lives, both patients and staff have soldiered on and been unwavering in their support of the study. We are indebted to them.”