SALT LAKE CITY, May 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that an abstract highlighting teduglutide as a novel potential therapy for the treatment of patients with Crohn’s Disease, was selected for the Late-Breaking Session at the Digestive Disease Week 2006 (DDW(R)) medical meeting in Los Angeles. The abstract outlines results from a phase 2a proof-of-concept study in patients with moderate to severe Crohn’s disease.
Alan Buchman, M.D., the study’s principal investigator and associate professor and director of the IBD Center at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, will present “Effect of Teduglutide on Patients with Moderate-Severe Crohn’s Disease after 8 Weeks of Therapy: A Prospective Double-Blind Placebo Controlled Trial” on Tuesday, May 23rd from 2:45-3:00 p.m. PDT in Room 501 A/B/C at the LA Convention Center.
A potential first in class drug, teduglutide is a proprietary analog of glucagon-like peptide 2 (GLP-2), a naturally occurring hormone that regulates the growth, proliferation and maintenance of cells lining the gastrointestinal tract. A previous Phase II clinical study in patients with Short Bowel Syndrome showed that daily subcutaneous injections of teduglutide resulted in significant growth of the intestinal lining and improved dietary absorption of nutrients and fluids.
About Crohn’s Disease
Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease characterized by inflammation of any part of the gastrointestinal tract and associated with chronic morbidity. Crohn’s disease affects nearly one million patients in the United States and Europe.
About NPS Pharmaceuticals
NPS discovers, develops and commercializes small molecules and recombinant proteins as drugs, primarily for the treatment of metabolic, bone and mineral, and central nervous system disorders. The company markets products and has drug candidates in various stages of clinical development backed by a strong discovery research effort. Additional information is available on the company’s website, http://www.npsp.com.
About Digestive Disease Week
Digestive Disease Week (DDW) is the largest international gathering of physicians, researchers and academics in the fields of gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy and gastrointestinal surgery. Jointly sponsored by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) and the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract (SSAT), DDW takes place May 20 - 25, 2006 in Los Angeles, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The meeting showcases approximately 5,000 abstracts and hundreds of lectures on the latest advances in GI research, medicine and technology. For more information, visit www.ddw.org.
Safe Harbor Statement
Note: Statements made in this press release, which are not historical in nature, constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provided by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include those regarding our expectation that teduglutide may be a promising treatment alternative in Crohn’s disease. These statements are based on management’s current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include: future clinical trials may demonstrate that teduglutide is not safe and/or efficacious; we may not be able to enroll patients in our clinical trials in a timely manner; we may not be able to prepare and finalize clinical protocols in a timely manner to commence additional clinical trials with teduglutide for Crohn’s in a timely manner; we may not be able to collect, analyze and report data from our clinical trials in a timely manner; we may never develop additional products that generate revenues; our product candidates may not prove to be safe or efficacious; the FDA may delay approval or may not approve any of our product candidates; current collaborators or partners may not devote adequate resources to the development and commercialization of our licensed drug candidates which would prevent or delay introduction of drug candidates to the market. All information is as of May 11, 2006, and we undertake no duty to update this information. A more complete description of these risks can be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2005 and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2006.
NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
CONTACT: Brandi Simpson, Sr. Director, Investor Relations of NPSPharmaceuticals, Inc., +1-801-583-4939
Web site: http://www.ddw.org/http://www.npsp.com/
