Raptor produces a drug that could slow down the progress of Huntington’s
(Mirror Daily, United States) – After 36 months of trial that showed a 25% treatment effect Raptor advances Huntington’s disease drug trial.
The clinical trial is in Phase 2/3 and has been conducted so far in collaboration with a hospital center in France. The trial is made to test the efficiency of a drug produced by Raptor called RP103. The drug was created to help treat patients with Huntington’s disease.
This disease affects approximately 100K people all over the world. It is though quite rare and it a genetically transmitted disorder, meaning that if someone in the family had it, especially one of the parents, the child will most likely inherit the disorder as well. Huntington’s symptoms can start quite early, at about the age of 30 and include mood swings and depression that can later progress into dementia as well as uncontrollable movements. Death occurs about 15 to 20 years after the diagnosis.
In 36 months the patients who were given the drug registered a slow-down of 25% to 35% in the progress of the disease. On the other hand, the ones who only started receiving the drug beginning with the 18th month didn’t experience the same change. Until month 18, patients received placebo.
Although results may seem rather insignificant for some, they represent quite a step forward in the treatment of Huntington’s as so far, scientists have not been able to find a cure for it. Besides even slowing down the progress of the disease was considered to be almost impossible, so we can only hope the RP103 will continue to work on patients.
There were many cases of suicides of people having Huntington’s disease as their brains are deeply affected or they prefer not to live with the disease as they no longer have the mental and physiological capacities they used to. Even three of the patients in this trial committed suicide.
The drug can have some adverse effects such as headaches, nausea, diarrhea or vomiting. However, they don’t pose a threat for the patient’s general health and the company is planning to conduct a Phase 3 study after closing up Phase 2.
The FDA and EMA have approved this last phase of the study and if everything goes as planned, Raptor might start commercializing the RP103 drug for the treatment of Huntington’s disease.
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