Santarus Begins Phase IIa Study With SAN-300 In Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

(RTTNews) - Specialty biopharmaceutical company Santarus, Inc. (SNTS) has started patient enrollment in a multicenter, multinational, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multiple ascending dose study with the investigational drug SAN-300, its novel antibody that inhibits very late antigen-1; and nearly 90 patients would be enrolled in the trial.

The Phase IIa trial is designed to assess the safety and tolerability of repeat subcutaneous or SC doses of SAN-300 in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis or RA with inadequate response to disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs or DMARDs.

Mark Totoritis, M.D., senior vice president of clinical research at Santarus said, "We believe that SAN-300 has potential application as a drug candidate in multiple inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, including RA, inflammatory bowel disease, and psoriasis."

The secondary goals of the study is to evaluate Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, Preliminary efficacy, as well as Immunogenicity with repeat doses of SC SAN-300 in patients with active RA.