18 February 2021 - - The first patients have been dosed in US-based pharmaceutical company Inhibikase Therapeutics, Inc's (NASDAQ: IKT) Phase 1 clinical trial of IkT-148009, an Abelson Tyrosine Kinase, or c-Abl, inhibitor for the treatment of Parkinson's disease.

This randomized Phase 1 study is investigating the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of IkT-148009 in healthy volunteers aged 45 to 70 years old with the objective of identifying the maximum tolerated dose and the PK profile of IkT-148009 in single and multiple ascending dose settings.

In preclinical animal models of progressive disease, the company demonstrated that once a day oral therapy with IkT-148009 can both halt and reverse functional loss in the brain and gastrointestinal tract.

Activation of c-Abl, in humans occurs once plaques of alpha-synuclein are internalized by the affected neurons.

C-Abl then drives biochemical pathways and processes that lead to degradation of the neurons affected in Parkinson's disease.

Inhibition of c-Abl may restore functional loss for neurons that have not fully degraded in the brain and remodel neurons in the gastrointestinal tract, two major organ systems affected by the disease.





Kern Named Chief Medical Officer at Lyra Therapeutics

US-based clinical-stage therapeutics company Lyra Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: LYRA) has named Robert Kern, MD as its chief medical officer, the company said.

He will also remain in his current position as the George A. Sisson Professor and chair, Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Dr. Kern is the immediate past president of the American Rhinologic Society and current president of the International Society of Inflammation and Allergy of the Nose.

He is a highly regarded clinician and researcher with a long history of leadership in the field of sinonasal disorders.

Dr. Kern has 30 years of experience in the ENT medical field. He joined the Northwestern faculty over two decades ago, and was appointed as chair of the Department of Otolaryngology in 2006.

His ENT clinical practice focuses around complex sinonasal disease and endoscopic skull base surgery and he has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed articles.

Dr. Kern attended medical school at the Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University and completed an otolaryngology residency at Wayne State University as well as a two-year National Institutes of Health research training fellowship.

He has an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University.

Lyra Therapeutics is a clinical-stage therapeutics company focused on the development and commercialization of novel integrated drug and delivery solutions for the localized treatment of patients with ear, nose and throat diseases.

The company's lead product candidate, LYR-210, is designed to deliver up to six months of continuous anti-inflammatory drug therapy to the sinonasal passages for the treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis in patients who have not undergone surgery for the disease.

Lyra is also developing LYR-220 for CRS patients who have undergone a prior surgery and have persistent disease.

Beyond CRS, the company believes its XTreo platform, comprised of drug administered through a bioresorbable polymeric matrix, has the potential to address other disease areas by precisely, consistently and locally delivering medicines for sustained periods with a single administration.