On December 29, 2022, the wechat official account of Shiyao Group announced that ALMB-0166 has been approved by the National Medical Products Administration of the People's Republic of China for the treatment of osteoarthritis, and clinical trials can be carried out in China.
ALMB-0166 is a First-in-class humanized monoclonal antibody inhibitor targeting the novel half-channel membrane protein Connexin 43. AlaMab Therapeutics Inc., a subsidiary of Alamab, Inc. Independently developed for the treatment of osteoarthritis, acute spinal cord injury, stroke and other serious diseases of the nervous system and bone related. Osteoarthritis is a chronic disease mainly caused by damage to articular cartilage. Currently, there are more than 300 million patients worldwide, and statistics show that there are nearly 100 million patients in China. There are limited treatment methods for osteoarthritis. Currently, symptomatic treatment such as analgesic drugs is the main treatment method. However, treatment methods that can fundamentally inhibit cartilage tissue damage from mechanism are extremely lacking. ALMB-0166 protects cartilage and alleviates osteoarthritis-related inflammation and pain by inhibiting the release of pro-inflammatory and pro-injury-inducing factors from bone cells by blocking the opening of the Cx43 semi-channel associated with osteoarthritis. Preclinical studies have shown that ALMB-0166 can significantly reduce bone and joint pain in animals and improve the pathologic status of animal cartilage tissue, providing new potential therapies for the fundamental treatment of osteoarthritis.
ALMB-0166 was also granted orphan drug status by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of acute spinal cord injury in 2018. Almb-0166 has completed a phase I clinical trial in healthy subjects in Australia and is currently undergoing phase I/II clinical trials in China.
Shiyao Group will go all out to promote the clinical research of ALMB-0166 in different indications and strive to market the product as soon as possible.
