Cumberland Pharmaceuticals Inc (Nasdaq: CPIX), a US-based specialty pharmaceutical company with development efforts focused on new products for rare diseases, announced on Tuesay a partnership with Qureight, a Core Imaging Laboratory developing deep-learning image analytics, with the intention of enhancing the outcome and output of data from Cumberland's FIGHTING FIBROSIS clinical trial.

The Phase II study is evaluating Cumberland's ifetroban product candidate in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), the most common form of progressive fibrosing interstitial lung disease. This collaboration aims to address a critical unmet need for the estimated 2 million IPF patients worldwide, who currently have limited treatment options that can effectively halt disease progression. The partnership will utilise Qureight's advanced, deep-learning image analytics tools for complex lung disease applications to provide deeper insights into treatment efficacy and disease progression in Cumberland's IPF clinical program.

Under this partnership, Qureight's AI-driven analytics technologies will be used to quantify changes in multiple imaging biomarkers, using computed tomography (CT) data from FIGHTING FIBROSIS study patients. The collaboration leverages Qureight's expertise in IPF and quantitative imaging biomarkers to support Cumberland's evaluation of crucial primary and secondary study endpoints.

Cumberland's FIGHTING FIBROSIS clinical trial is a multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase II study investigating the safety and efficacy of once daily oral ifetroban for 52 weeks in patients with IPF. The study includes both patients on existing antifibrotic therapies and those not currently receiving such treatments, with a primary endpoint focusing on change in forced vital capacity.

"We are excited to partner with Qureight as we work to develop a new treatment for patients with IPF – and address that critical unmet medical need," said A.J. Kazimi, Cumberland Pharmaceuticals chief executive officer. "Given ifetroban's promising data demonstrating prevention of lung fibrosis in multiple preclinical models, we believe Qureight's advanced imaging analysis capabilities will provide crucial insights that could help advance understanding and outputs from our IPF clinical program."