DEBRA UK is pleased to announce that it has approved its first drug repurposing clinical trial which has been made possible with funding raised through the A Life Free of Pain appeal.

This clinical trial will see an existing licensed treatment for psoriasis (apremilast) clinically tested on children and adults with severe epidermolysis bullosa simplex (EBS).

The study, which will be led by Dr Christine Chiaverini, a dermatologist who works at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nice in France and will involve clinical testing with up to twenty people, aged six years or older, who have severe EBS which causes at least four new blisters every day.

It is estimated that the study will involve twenty weeks of testing for each person: after an initial screening they will take the tablets for eight weeks, stop for four weeks, then take the tablets again for a further eight weeks. Outcomes such as blistering, pain, itch and quality of life will be measured during periods with and without treatment and compared. Positive results will support the next step of a placebo controlled clinical trial.

In total the clinical trial is set to take 2 years to complete.

Commenting on the trial, DEBRA UK CEO Tony Byrne said:

We are very pleased to be able to launch our first drug repurposing clinical trial for EB. Since last October when we launched the A Life Free of Pain appeal, one of our three core objectives has been to raise £3m in funding to enable the acceleration of our drug repurposing programme. Thanks to the hard work of teams across the organisation, the apremilast clinical trial is the first of what we hope will be many clinical trials that we will fund which could take us a step closer to having approved drug treatments for EB. These drug treatments could have a positive impact on the symptoms of EB such as blistering, pain, and itch, and improve overall quality of life. I look forward to seeing the positive results of this very important clinical trial.

 

Read more about the project

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