Irish pharmaceutical company Elan and its US partner Biogen said a new analysis of three late-stage clinical trials showed that their Tysabri medicine reduced the rate of hospitalisations in people with moderate-to-severe Crohn's disease.
In patients treated with Tysabri, the rate of hospitalisation for any reason was reduced by 35 per cent during the initial period of treatment and by 44 per cent during the maintenance period, Dublin-based Elan and Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Biogen said today in an e-mailed statement.
Tysabri was cleared in the US in January 2008 to treat Crohn's disease, an inflammatory intestine and bowel disorder that affects as many as 500,000 Americans.
The drug is thought to inhibit white blood cells from attacking healthy tissue, although the exact way it works isn't fully understood, the companies said on a Web site for the drug.
US regulators temporarily suspended sales of Tysabri, which has also been approved to treat multiple sclerosis, in 2005 after three cases of the deadly brain disease progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, or PML, were reported.
The drug was reintroduced after MS patients pleaded for the product's return. However, European regulators said last week they are reviewing Tysabri's safety after it was linked to 23 cases of the disease, almost twice the number of infections previously disclosed.
Less than one patient in 1,000 develops PML, with those who get more monthly infusions having increased risks, according to the US Food and Drug Administration.
Bloomberg
