another journal article

Here's another journal article. (Apologies to those who have seen it already.) It reiterates that the drug does what its supposed to. But given the run up in the share price, I dont blame anyone for making some big bucks off the doubling or more of the stock price. I wouldnt be surprised if there was some more profit taking.

Afamelanotide, an ¦Á-melanocyte stimulating hormone
(MSH) agonist reduces phototoxicity in Erythropoietic
Protoporphyria (EPP), as tested under laboratory
conditions

R. Dunn1, G. Varigos1, J. Harms2, S. Lautenschlager2,
C. Minder3, E. Minder2

1Department of Dermatology, Roayl Melbbourne Hospital,
VIC, Australia 2Central Laboratory and Department of Dermatology, Triemli Hospital, Z¨¹rich, Switzerland
3Institute for Social and preventative Medicine University of Berne, Berne, Switzerland

Introduction: Patients suffering from erythropoietic protoporphyria accumulate protoporphyrin IX within erythrocytes and the dermis, which, upon sunlight exposure,
induces severe skin pain, erythema, oedema, vesicle formation and chronic scarring. The exact mechanism giving rise to symptoms in EPP is not known, but the light excitation of porphyrin (tetra-pyrrole ring) and subsequent formationof UVA-related free radicals is an important factor. The agonistic analogue of ¦Á-melanocyte stimulating hormone,afamelanotide, increases skin pigmentation by inducing dermal melanin synthesis and transfer, thereby reducing UVA penetration to the deeper layers of the dermis. For the fi rst time the effi cacy of an a-MSH analogue on phototoxicity has been assessed in patients with erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP).

Method: Five patients with erythropoietic protoporphyria
were investigated in an open label phase II study. They
received 2 subcutaneous implantations of 20 mg afamelanotide on day 0 and day 60. Effi cacy and safety evaluations were performed every 30 days up to 120 days. The Primary endpoint measured was photoprovocation response time (occurrence of EPP-related pain during monochromatic light exposure.)

Results: Melanin density signifi cantly increased (p =
0.0043) after dosing with afamelanotide. Dramatically all
fi ve patients increased their tolerated photo provocation
response times and there was a signifi cant reduction in
severity scores from 34 to 24. Afamelanotide seems to be
effective in EPP patients under testing conditions as demonstrated in this open label Phase II study, however the
clinical signifi cance of these fi ndings is limited by the study design and the small number of study participants.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/122313727/PDFSTART