SAN DIEGO, May 28, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MediciNova, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company that is publicly traded on the Nasdaq Global Market (Nasdaq:MNOV) and the Hercules Market of the Osaka Securities Exchange (Code Number:4875), today announced that it will modify the dosing regimen for the ongoing Phase II clinical trial (MN-221-CL-007), which is evaluating the safety and efficacy of MN-221 in patients with severe, acute exacerbations of asthma. Dosing in the MN-221-CL-007 clinical trial will now compare standardized care only to standardized care plus MN-221 at a dose of 250 micrograms administered over 15 minutes rather than at a dose of 1.2 mg administered over one hour, as previously planned under the study protocol. The modification is based on further analysis of data from the recently completed Phase II clinical trial (MN-221-CL-006) which evaluated MN-221 at planned escalating doses in patients with severe, acute exacerbations of asthma treated in emergency departments and two earlier Phase II clinical trials (MN-221-CL-004 and MN-221-CL-005) which evaluated MN-221 in patients with stable asthma. In particular, in the MN-221-CL-006 clinical trial, patients who received MN-221 at 240 micrograms over 15 minutes in combination with standard care demonstrated the best efficacy based on improvements in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and in hospitalization rate.
