Palatin’s melanocortin agonists shows efficacy in inflammatory diseases

Palatin (PTN) presented a poster at the 19th Annual Peptide Therapeutics Symposium held October 22-23, in La Jolla, California. The poster presentation illustrates data from clinical and preclinical studies for three proprietary melanocortin agonists: PL9643 ophthalmic solution demonstrated effectiveness with statistical significance across multiple clinical signs and reduced symptomatic ocular pain in the Phase 3 MELODY-1 clinical trial. This demonstrates that PL9643 has a positive effect across multiple regions of the eye in patients with moderate and severe dry eye disease with an excellent ocular safety/tolerability profile. Oral PL8177 effectively reduced colonic damage and inflammation, and improved stool consistency and fecal occult blood in rat animal models of ulcerative colitis. Interim results from an in-progress Phase 2 safety and efficacy trial in adult participants with active UC is expected later this year. Subcutaneous BID administration of PL9654 reduced vision loss and photoreceptor degeneration in the streptozotocin rat model. Genomic and proteomic analysis illustrates that PL9654 0.05 mg/kg causes a reduction in microglia and negative enrichment of genes associated with immune-related pathways, with a simultaneous increase in pro-resolution, suggesting a reduction in inflammatory processes. PL9654 is Palatin’s lead development compound for treating various retinal diseases.