International attention will soon focus on a promising new drug co-invented by University of Otago Prof Robin Smith, with results of a clinical trial involving hepatitis C patients being released next week.
Release of the clinical results would prove "a significant milestone for the whole project,'' after what had proved a "very rewarding experience'' in helping create the drug, Prof Smith, of the Otago chemistry department, said in an interview.
Antipodean Pharmaceuticals Inc, a company formed by Auckland-based Antipodean Biotechnology Ltd, recently an-nounced that it had completed a phase 2 clinical trial of the drug, known as Mitoquinone (MitoQ), which was invented at Otago University by Prof Smith and a former Otago colleague, Dr Michael Murphy.
Otago University's commercialisation company, Otago Innovation Ltd, is a foundation shareholder in Antipodean.
Results of the trial of MitoQ on hepatitis C patients will be presented at the annual conference of the European Association for the Study of the Liver annual meeting, on April 24 (Anzac Day NZ time) in Milan, Italy.
The study - on 30 patients with hepatitis C virus not suitable for interferon or ribavirin treatment - was conducted by Associate Prof Edward Gane, of Auckland Hospital's liver transplant unit.
Hepatitis C, a viral infection of the liver, affects more than 170 million people worldwide and is the leading cause of cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and liver failure.
Currently available therapies can have significant side-effects and eradicate the virus in only about half the patients.
Prof Smith said the clinical trial outcomes would not be known until next week but he understood a "very positive result'' had been achieved.
Further hurdles had to be cleared before MitoQ could be used as a new therapy, but he was gaining great satisfaction in knowing that a drug developed in "dear old Dunedin'' was already showing promise in combating hepatitis and, potentially, some other "serious health conditions,'' he said.
Hepatitis C is closely associated with damage caused by oxidants to mitochondria, the power packs which provide energy within cells.
MitoQ uses a novel technology, targeting processes which transport and concentrate antioxidants into the mitochondria, where they accumulate at levels up to a thousand times normal.
Dr Barry Snow, head of neuro-logy at Auckland Hospital, has also trialled the drug on a progressive neurological condition, Parkinson's Disease, in the hope that it could delay disease progression.
The latter trials marked the first time a drug has been fully developed and trialled in New Zealand.