Urology Product Preview November 2013

Patent issued for investigational overactive bladder agent
AltheRx Pharmaceuticals recently received a U.S. patent for the use of its investigational drug solabegron in combination with all commercially available antimuscarinics at both therapeutic and sub-therapeutic doses for the treatment of overactive bladder. AltheRx is currently developing solabegron, a novel beta 3-adrenergic receptor agonist with high affinity and selectivity, for the treatment of OAB. Phase II clinical trial results demonstrated a statistically significant improvement with solabegron as compared to placebo, with favorable tolerability, according to the company.

TARIS, AstraZeneca enter into bladder cancer research partnership
TARIS Biomedical has entered into a research collaboration with AstraZeneca to evaluate novel treatments for bladder cancer. Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will work together to evaluate multiple novel cancer therapeutics by employing the TARIS proprietary bladder delivery platform in combination with targeted cancer therapeutics from AstraZeneca. The TARIS delivery platform is a soft, flexible system deployed into and retrieved from the bladder using standard urologic office procedures. It is designed to provide continuous local delivery to the bladder for days to weeks, depending on the therapeutic application, TARIS said.

Patients enrolled in clinical trial of investigational BPH treatment
Urologists in Salt Lake City have enrolled and treated the first patients in NxThera’s Rezum II U.S. investigational device exemption clinical trial of the Rezum System for the treatment of BPH. The Rezum System is designed to rapidly treat prostate tissue using steam in an office-based, minimally invasive procedure designed to treat the urethral obstruction caused by BPH. NxThera said it expects to enroll a total of 195 patients at 15 sites in the U.S.

Solution to prevent cathether blockage shows positive results
NovaBay Pharmaceuticals, Inc. recently announced positive top-line results from its phase II clinical study of auriclosene (NVC-422) to prevent urinary catheter blockage and encrustation of indwelling urinary catheters. The results show auriclosene was effective at reducing the degree of catheter encrustation and maintaining the catheter patency over the course of the study. Overall, the auriclosene irrigation solution reduced the average encrustation at the time of catheter removal from 77% encrusted (saline arm) to 22% encrusted (auriclosene arm), NovaBay reported.

Phase III trials evaluate survival benefit of advanced PCa treatment
Patient enrollment continues in the AFFINITY phase III trial, which will evaluate the potential survival benefit of the investigational agent custirsen in combination with cabazitaxel (Jevtana) as second-line chemotherapy in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC).
A separate phase III trial, called SYNERGY, will evaluate the survival benefit of using custirsen in combination with first-line docetaxel (Taxotere) chemotherapy in men with CRPC, according to OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals, Inc.UT

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