Amsterdam, The Netherlands, February 26, 2013 – Kiadis Pharma B.V., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing treatments for blood cancers, announced today it has received the No Objection Letter from Health Canada for its new clinical study with ATIR™. This study will be a Phase II international multi-center study with clinical sites in Canada and Belgium. Up to 23 patients will be treated in this study to corroborate and extend the safety and efficacy results from Kiadis Pharma‘s previous Phase I/II clinical study with ATIR™.
The coordinating investigator for the study will be Denis-Claude Roy, MD, professor of medicine at the University of Montreal. ATIR™ is a cell-based product designed to enable stem cell transplantations from mismatched (haploidentical) family donors.
“We are very happy that after having received approval from the Research Ethics Board of the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, we have now also gained approval from Health Canada and can commence with our new clinical study in Canada”, commented Manfred Ruediger, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Kiadis Pharma. “This study will be an important step forward in developing ATIR™ as an innovative therapeutic option for severely diseased blood cancer patients. Today, many of these patients die because a matched stem cell donor cannot be found.”
Dr. Denis-Claude Roy added: “We are excited that we can start this Phase II clinical study with ATIR™ in which we will treat blood cancer patients for whom a matched donor is not available for a standard transplantation procedure. This study provides these patients with the opportunity to receive a stem cell transplantation from a family member with ATIR™ added as an adjunctive treatment to provide rapid and potent immune protection and minimize post-transplant risks.”
