NJ firm to begin human tests of nerve growth drug
WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - Integra LifeSciences Corp. will
begin human testing this fall of what may be the first ever drug
to regrow peripheral nerves severed in auto, household and other
accidents, the firm's chief said Saturday.
``We will be going into human efficacy trials in Denmark in
the third quarter starting in September,'' firm president Stuart
Essig said about the experimental drug designed to regenerate
the body's peripheral nerves.
``It's something that no other product has the potential to
do today,'' Essig told a pharmaceutical industry investors
meeting in Washington. ``There is no product available that
regenerates the peripheral nerve.''
Peripheral nerves are bundles of fibers that carry key
messages from the brain that activate the body's muscles, the
sense of touch, and other critical functions.
``Now if you have an auto accident and you cut the nerve
(in) your hand, there are surgeries where you try to suture the
nerve together,'' Essig said. ``It's not a very successful
surgery.''
He said the Plainsboro, N.J. firm's experimental product,
which it hopes to fully launch in the year 2000, ``allows you to
regenerate peripheral nerves in the patients' own bodies.''
``We see a worldwide market of over $80 million,'' said
Essig, whose company is known for its ``Artificial Skin''
product used to regrow the seared skin of burn victims.
Essig described an example of how the product would work.
``The median nerve is the nerve that connects the upper body
to the fingers,'' he said. ``If you sever it, you can't wiggle
your finger.''
``Our product is shockingly simple,'' he said, adding it was
a protein, or ``collagen'' mixture shaped like a tube. ``You
suture either end of the severed nerve to the inside of the
tube,'' he said.
Essig noted that while nerves regenerate spontaneously, they
do not automatically attach, or ``comb.''
``They scar before they can get to touch one another,'' he
said. The firm's new product gives nerves a ``friendly
environment'' in which to grow -- the collagen. And the tube
shape gives the nerves a direction in which to grow, he said.
Essig said the firm has completed animal and safety studies
and will launch human studies. ``We think we have a very
exciting product,'' he told participants at the First Annual
Beltway Biotech Stocks Forum, sponsored by Informed Investors
Forum.