Elan Corporation and its partner Biogen today announced positive results from clinical trials of the drug Tysabri for the treatment of Crohn’s disease.
The pharmaceutical companies said that during phase 3 trials Tysabri had significantly reduced symptoms of Crohn’s disease.
The companies said there were "no notable differences in the overall rates of adverse events or serious adverse events between the Tysabri and placebo treatment groups".
The drug had been pulled from the market in February after it had been linked with a brain disease called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a rare and potentially fatal disease of the central nervous system.
The patients, two of whom died, were enrolled in Multiple Sclerosis trials.
Safety evaluations and investigations of the link with PML are ongoing, and findings are due by the end of the summer.
Executive vice president of Elan Lars Ekman said: "The results are encouraging because patients treated with Tysabri achieved a significant improvement in symptoms of this devastating, chronic immune disease".
