IMMURON LTD/S ADR (NASDAQ: IMRN) stock surged 19.1% on 4th January, 2018 (Source: Google finance). The company has hailed its colitis preclinical program at the University of Zürich, Switzerland as a complete success.
Immuron is currently developing commercially viable “polyclonal antibodies” in oral form, for the treatment of inflammatory-mediated and infectious diseases such colitis i.e. inflammation of the colon as well as other diseases such as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), severe alcoholic hepatitis (SAH) and pediatric non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
Immuron has said that oral administration of IMM-124E was successfully able to treat mice with immunologically induced colitis with research from the University of Zürich revealing that Immuron’s drug candidate, IMM-124E, “offered a significant therapeutic benefit on clinically meaningful study parameters”.
One important detail that could potentially have commercial significance for Immuron is the fact that in its research program, chronic colitis was induced immunologically not chemically. IMM-124E was administered orally after the onset of colitis symptoms such as weight loss and macroscopically inflamed colon were confirmed by colonoscopy prior to the initiation of treatment.
According to Immuron, the results of the trial demonstrated that oral treatment with IMM-124E “resulted in significant alleviation of colitis symptoms”
Immuron currently markets and sells Travelan for the prevention of “travellers’ diarrhoea” and its lead clinical candidate, IMM-124E, is currently in phase 2 clinical trials for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), severe alcoholic hepatitis (SAH) and pediatric non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
Meanwhile, Immuron’s second clinical stage asset, IMM-529 is targeting clostridium difficile infections (CDI).
With the program completed, the results indicate an encouraging future for IMM-124E as a commercially viable treatment for various autoimmune diseases.
Over the past decade or more, the reported rates of autoimmune diseases ranging from minor allergic reactions all the way through to terminal cancers have increased significantly – most visibly in developed countries with a higher propensity for synthetic foods and medicines.
Autoimmune diseases such as Chron’s disease are growing exponentially in many countries around the world, primarily due to deteriorating diets, growth in the consumption of artificial foods and decreasing consumption of natural foods.
Immuron hopes that its series of preclinical immunotherapy pipeline products will successfully treat the symptoms for a variety of immune-related diseases and address a large gap in the global immunotherapy market that’s growing at a CAGR of 7% during the period 2016-2020, according to Research and Markets.