Evaluation of an Oral Anti-TNF Antibody in Patients With Active Ulcerative Colitis

There is a significant unmet medical need for effective oral pharmacologic therapies for inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis. Current anti-TNF therapies, including infliximab and adalimumab, are effective treatments for these conditions, but they must be administered by intravenous or subcutaneous injection. The major safety concerns associated with the use of injectable anti-TNF therapies are infection, demyelinating disease, and lymphoma, all of which are the result of systemic exposure. These uncommon but serious side effects have limited the use of systemic anti-TNF antibody therapy to patients with severe disease that have failed to respond to first-line treatments. AVX-470 is purified immunoglobulin (Ig) from the colostrum (early milk) of cows immunized with recombinant human tumor necrosis factor (rhTNF). AVX-470 is formulated in delayed-release enteric-coated capsules designed to protect the capsule contents from gastric acids following oral administration and to provide localized delivery to sites of inflammation in the distal intestine. Prior clinical experience with bovine Ig therapies in other human diseases suggests that AVX-470 will not be absorbed to any significant extent, meaning that systemic exposure could be minimized. The development of oral anti-TNF therapy targeting local intestinal disease activity might reduce the risks associated with injectable anti-TNF therapy and allow the convenience of oral dosing. The present study is a first-in-human, Phase 1 clinical study. It is primarily intended to evaluate the safety and tolerability of multiple doses of AVX-470 administered orally to patients with active ulcerative colitis. Animal models of ulcerative colitis using a mouse-specific TNF antibody derived from bovine colostrum demonstrated a 50% or more reduction in tissue TNF, TNF-messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), interleukin (IL)-6 mRNA, and myeloperoxidase and lowering of colonic inflammatory activity. Twenty-eight-day toxicology studies demonstrated no clinical or histologic findings in exposures above the intended clinical dose range.