Forest Laboratories, Inc. And PAION Vampire Bat Drug Back From Dead; Drug Trial Resumes

AACHEN, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Biopharmaceutical company PAION AG (FSE: PA8) today announced that the independent Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) for the DIAS-2 Phase III study met and informed the Steering Committee, PAION and its development partner for Desmoteplase, Forest Laboratories, Inc. (New York, USA), that it has reviewed the cumulative data from the study provided by the Companies and recommended to resume patient enrollment into DIAS-2 with no modification of the protocol. At this meeting, the DMC reviewed data from 170 randomized patients. The DIAS-2 study is evaluating PAION's drug candidate Desmoteplase in patients with acute ischaemic stroke. The Companies continue to expect that enrollment will be completed by the end of 2006 and that study results will be available by the middle of 2007.

"We are reassured by the DMC's recommendation and are looking forward to complete the study as an important milestone in the development of this potentially breakthrough stroke medication," states PAION's CEO Dr Wolfgang Soehngen. "We wish to thank our clinical investigators for their continued support in conducting the clinical trial and the positive feedback that we received during the ongoing stroke conference in Cape Town. We also appreciate the confidence of our shareholders and the analysts who cover PAION as they have provided a balanced description of the situation in PAION."

Contact: Dr. Peer Nils Schroeder Investor Relations / Public Relations PAION AG Martinstrasse 10-12 52062 Aachen - Germany Tel. +49 (0)241 4453 152 Email pn.schroeder@paion.de www.paion.de

Source: PAION AG

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