Eiger BioPharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:EIGR) completed enrollment of the Phase 2 ULTRA study designed to evaluate the effects of ubenimex in patients with primary and secondary lymphedema of the lower limbs. A total of 54 patients were enrolled across sites in the U.S. and Australia.
Ubenimex is a well-characterized, oral, small-molecule inhibitor of leukotriene A4 hydrolase (LTA4H), which blocks production of leukotriene B4 (LTB4), an inflammatory mediator implicated in lymphedema.
There is currently no FDA approved pharmacologic therapy for lymphedema. Compression garments and bandaging are the current standard of care.
“Our research has demonstrated that LTB4 is elevated in preclinical models of lymphedema as well as in human lymphedema, and that elevated LTB4 is associated with tissue inflammation and impaired lymphatic function,” Dr. Stanley Rockson, lead investigator and Prof. of cardiovascular medicine and director of the Stanford Center for Lymphatic and Venous Disorders, said in a statement.
“Our research suggests that targeted pharmacologic inhibition of LTB4 promotes physiologic lymphatic repair and reverses lymphedema disease in treated animals,” he added.
