BioAlliance continues with product acquisitions despite Immtech's strategy change

Specialty pharmaceutical company BioAlliance Pharma is to pursue its advanced compound acquisition strategy for European onocology and HIV markets.

The move comes despite Immtech Pharmaceuticals announcing plans to discontinue research into an investigation therapy for pneunmocycstis pneumonia (PCP) in HIV patients and for African sleeping sickness.

BioAlliance Pharma had signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Immtech Pharmaceuticals for the European sales rights to the new chemical entity parfuramidine in early December.

However, all Phase III programmes concerning the drug were discontinuted following a risk-benefit analysis of the compound.

Reports had shown that volunteers from a December 2007 safety study in South Africa had developed liver abnormalities. And later in February, Immtech received information on additional events related to abnormal kidney function during the follow-up of the volunteers in the same safety study.

The FDA imposed a clinical hold on the drug in late December. And while the cause of the liver and kidney toxicity has not yet been fully clarified, Immtech and the independent Data Safety Monitoring Board decided to discontinue the compound.Immtech will focus on its novel anti-infectives.

"Pafuramidine's Phase II results were promising and did not raise any particular safety concerns; we were thus hopeful that this compound would successfully complete is pivotal Phase III clinical trial in patients with PCP," said Immtech president and ceo Dominique Costantini. "BioAlliance Pharma will actively pursue its product acquisition strategy in order to add complementary compounds to its own portfolio. We are seeking products for treating chemotherapy complications or rare diseases in oncology or HIV, for example."