Digesting SangStat's IBD data

Although Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis both are forms of inflammatory bowel disease, a successful treatment for one may not translate to the other. A case in point is SangStat Medical Corp.'s RDP58, which last week showed positive Phase II data in ulcerative colitis, but non-statistically significant Phase II results in Crohn's.

RDP58 is a synthetic peptide inhibitor of TNF-alpha, gamma interferon and IL-12 synthesis, and an up-regulator of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) expression. In short, the compound inhibits cells involved in the TH1 immune response. ...