Epistem to Present Data from their Model of Crohn’s Disease Colitis at the Inflammation Research Association Conference

Epistem plc (LSE: EHP), the UK biotechnology and contract research company, will present preclinical results from its recently completed colitis study at the Inflammation Research Association (IRA) conference in Chantilly, Virginia USA between 26-29^th September 2010.  In a contracted study, Epistem successfully completed the testing of a number of neutralizing antibodies.

Data will be presented by Epistem Dr James Wilson, demonstrating that the therapeutic antibodies significantly reduced the symptoms of disease using a preclinical chronic “adoptive T cell transfer” model of human colitis.  Many features of Epistem’s colitis model are characteristic of human Crohn’s disease, which is a serious and chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).  Crohn’s disease is associated with diarrhea, abdominal pain and weight loss in patients.  Currently no single treatment is effective in all patients and surgery may be required to remove diseased tissue.  It is estimated that over 1 million patients suffer from IBD in the USA and novel therapies, including antibody therapies to inflammatory mediators, are now being developed with the aim of identifying more effective treatments.

These data show that the therapeutic antibodies all demonstrated efficacy in reducing the severity of T cell transfer-mediated colitis, as evidenced by reductions in diarrhea and weight loss, and by reductions in the histological characteristics of the disease such as the area and degree of bowel inflammation. 

“Epistem are epithelial tissue experts, with particular knowledge of the gastrointestinal tract.  We have developed many specialised preclinical models to assist the drug development industry in identifying new and effective treatments for epithelial tissue disease.  We are one of just a few companies who provide this robust model of chronic IBD as a research service and we are very pleased with the results from this study” commented Dr Catherine Booth, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Epistem.

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