BioCentury
ARTICLE | Clinical News

Immtech ending pafuramidine development

February 23, 2008 1:27 AM UTC

Immtech (AMEX:IMM) discontinued development of pafuramidine (DB289) after a review of clinical data suggested the risks outweigh the potential benefit. In December, the company placed a clinical hold on all trials of pafuramidine after seeing liver abnormalities in a South African safety study (See BioCentury Extra, Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2007).

Immtech said that this month it received additional reports of abnormal kidney function in volunteers enrolled in the same study. The binder of parasite DNA that competes with binding of topoisomerase II was in Phase III testing to treat African sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis) and pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), and Phase II testing to treat and prevent malaria. ...