uniQure Announces Dosing of First Patient in Phase I/IIa Clinical Trial of AMT-191 for the Treatment of Fabry Disease

LEXINGTON, Mass. and AMSTERDAM, Aug. 15, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- uniQure N.V. (NASDAQ: QURE), a leading gene therapy company advancing transformative therapies for patients with severe medical needs, today announced that the first patient has been dosed in a Phase I/IIa clinical trial of AMT-191 for the treatment of Fabry disease, a rare, inherited genetic disease. The Phase I/IIa study is a multi-center, open-label trial being conducted in the United States with two dose-escalating cohorts assessing the safety, tolerability and early signs of efficacy of AMT-191 in individuals with Fabry disease.

“We are very pleased to begin patient dosing for AMT-191 in Fabry disease, marking a significant milestone in this year’s goal to advance three new gene therapy candidates into clinical studies,” stated Walid Abi-Saab, M.D., chief medical officer of uniQure. “AMT-191 utilizes the same AAV delivery technology incorporated in HEMGENIX, which has an extensive, long-term safety profile and demonstrated effectiveness in patients with preexisting neutralizing antibodies to the AAV capsid. Our trial is designed to capture well-established endpoints in Fabry disease and to rapidly generate clinical proof-of-concept data for AMT-191 with a differentiated product profile relative to other Fabry programs in clinical development.”

AMT-191 is an investigational AAV5-based gene therapy that uses a proprietary, highly potent promoter to deliver a galactosidase alpha (GLA) transgene designed to target the liver to produce GLA protein. In patients with Fabry disease, a pathogenic variant in the GLA gene leads to α-galactosidase A (aGAL-A) enzyme deficiency, which in turn results in a progressive accumulation of lipids in multiple cell types, including kidney and heart cells, eventually resulting in a multi-system disorder. AMT-191 may offer a novel potential one-time intravenously administered approach to treating Fabry disease.

The Phase I/IIa clinical trial of AMT-191 will be conducted in the United States. The multicenter, open-label trial consists of two cohorts with up to six adult male patients each: a low-dose cohort of 6x10¹³ gc/kg and a high-dose cohort of 3x10¹⁴ gc/kg delivered through a one-time intravenous infusion. Patients will continue to receive their regular enzyme replacement therapy until the criteria for withdrawal is met and will be followed for a period of 24 months. The trial will explore the safety, tolerability, and early signs of efficacy by measuring the expression of lysosomal enzyme aGLA-A. Additional details are available on www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT06270316).