Late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company, Liquidia Technologies focused on enhancing the performance of medicine by precisely engineering drug particles, today announced positive Phase 1 and preclinical results evaluating LIQ861 for the treatment of PAH at the 12th Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute (PVRI) Annual World Congress on Pulmonary Vascular Disease in Singapore. LIQ861, developed using Liquidia’s proprietary PRINT® technology, is a powder formulation of treprostinil designed for deep-lung delivery using a disposable, dry powder inhaler (DPI).
57 healthy volunteers were evaluated, following a single administration of LIQ861 at doses between 25 mcg and 150 mcg. LIQ861 was well-tolerated at all doses tested, with a proportional dose response in pharmacokinetics. No serious adverse events were observed for all LIQ861 doses up to 150 mcg. Notably, at both 100 mcg and 150 mcg doses of LIQ861, 50% of individuals had measurable treprostinil at four hours, which could minimize PAH symptoms between dosing cycles. PAH is a rare, chronic and progressive disease caused by the hardening and narrowing of the pulmonary arteries, which often results in heart failure. Previously approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in parenteral, nebulized and oral formulations.
Neal Fowler, Chief Executive Officer for Liquidia. “LIQ861 has the potential to maximize the therapeutic benefits of treprostinil in treating PAH by safely and efficiently delivering higher doses of drug deeply into the lungs using a convenient, disposable DPI. These early findings support advancing directly into a Phase 3 clinical trial and bring us closer to being able to offer patients a potential game-changer for treating PAH.”
Image source: Liquidia Technologies