TORONTO (Reuters) - Shares of ConjuChem Biotechnologies
Inc.
The company, which is developing treatments for HIV and diabetes, said final results of its PC-DAC:Exendin-4 phase 1/2 trial for type 2 diabetes showed positive efficacy on glucose reduction, excellent tolerance and extended duration.
In addition, "there is a very low rate if any of nausea and vomiting," said Lennie Ryer, vice-president of finance at ConjuChem.
"The drug is being very well-tolerated in the industry."
The company said it would conduct further multi-dose phase 1/2 trials to begin in the fourth quarter.
ConjuChem shares climbed 30 Canadian cents, or 28 percent, to C$1.38 in afternoon trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange, after earlier rising as high as C$1.41.
Ryer said the company was "on track" to produce a treatment for type 2 diabetes that would require dosing of once a week or less. He estimated it could be on the market by 2010.
Still, Ryer said a key step for the company would be to strike a partnership with a large drug company to develop and market the treatment.
"This is not a compound that a small biotech company is going to take right through to approval on its own," he said. "At some point we will clearly license the drug. But at what point in time will we choose to monetize or partially monetize that asset, I can't say."
The results were good news for the company, which was forced last year to stop trials of another drug to treat type 2 diabetes because it caused nausea.
That treatment was injected into the blood and then bound with albumin, a protein found in blood. But not all of the injected drug attached to the albumin and instead, remained free-floating or unbound, likely causing the nausea.
PC-DAC:Exendin-4 is injected already bound to albumin, thereby eliminating the problem of a free-floating drug.
ConjuChem shares were hammered earlier this year after an AIDS patient in Argentina died while participating in a phase 2 trial.
But the company said last month the death was not related to the treatment and the patient most likely died from asymptomatic coronary artery disease.
($1=$1.12 Canadian)
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