Beclometasone oral--DOR BioPharma

orBec is an oral enteric-coated tablet formulation of the corticosteroid beclometasone, which has been developed by Enteron Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Corporate Technology Development (now DOR BioPharma). orBec is being developed for the treatment of gastrointestinal graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and an NDA has been filed in the US. DOR BioPharma has also filed an MAA in Europe for the same indication.orBec is designed to reduce the need for systemic immunosuppressive drugs, thereby improving the outcome of bone marrow and stem cell transplantation.DOR BioPharma may seek a marketing partner in the US and elsewhere for orBec in GVHD and will seek a partner for other potential indications of the drug.In December 2001, Corporate Technology Development was acquired by Endorex Corporation (now DOR BioPharma). In October 1998, Enteron Pharmaceuticals (DOR BioPharma) entered into an exclusive, worldwide, royalty bearing license agreement with George B. McDonald, MD, including the right to grant sublicenses, for the rights to the intellectual property and know-how relating to orBec. In January 2007, DOR BioPharma received $US3 million under a non-binding letter of intent from Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals. The agreement grants Sigma-Tau an exclusive right to negotiate terms and conditions for a possible business transaction or strategic alliance regarding orBec and potentially other DOR pipeline compounds until 1 March 2007. Under the terms of the agreement, Sigma-Tau purchased $US1 million of DOR's common stock, with an additional $US2 million paid in cash. If no agreement is reached by 1 March 2007, DOR will return the $US2 million to Sigma-Tau within 60 days. DOR BioPharma received an unsolicited proposal from Cell Therapeutics, Inc. to acquire DOR BioPharma in January 2007. Because of the non-binding agreement already signed with Sigma-Tau, DOR BioPharma's board of directors cannot consider Cell Therapeutics' merger proposal at this time. orBec has been filed for approval in the US for the treatment of gastrointestinal GVHD. The US FDA accepted the NDA filing and has established a target date of 21 July 2007 for completion of review of the NDA. In November 2006, the EMEA determined that the MAA for orBec for the treatment of gastrointestinal GVHD is complete and that the review process has begun. The data provided in the MAA and NDA submissions demonstrate that orBec safely provides a lower risk of mortality compared with the current standard of care. Both filings are supported by data from two randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled clinical trials. The first was a 129-patient pivotal phase III clinical trial for orBec conducted at 16 bone marrow/stem cell transplant centres in the US and France. The second trial was a 60-patient phase II clinical trial conducted at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre. In the primary endpoint of its pivotal trial, time to treatment failure through day 50, orBec failed to achieve statistical significance (p-value 0.1177). However, orBec did achieve statistical significance in the secondary endpoints of time to treatment failure through day 80, and a reduction in mortality compared with placebo. In this trial, patient survival at the prespecified endpoint of 200 days post-transplant showed a statistically significant 66% reduction in mortality among patients randomised to orBec. DOR BioPharma believes the primary endpoint was not achieved due to a higher than expected rate of treatment failures during the initial 10 days in both treatment groups. The mortality benefit in favour of orBec was confirmed in a retrospective analysis of the phase II study, in which there was a 55% reduction in mortality at 200 days post-transplant. At 1 year after randomisation, there were relatively consistent 51% and 45% reductions in the risk of mortality among patients randomised to orBec in both the phase III and phase II studies, respectively.DOR BioPharma is also conducting a phase II clinical trial to investigate orBec in the prevention of gastrointestinal GVHD. DOR BioPharma has executed an exclusive licence agreement with the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston for the use of oral luminally active anti-inflammatory drugs, such as orBec, for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome.