Novo Nordisk VP to Speak at Cytokines Conference Jan 31, 2013 in San Diego, CA

MONROVIA, CA, December 12, 2012 (Press-News.org) Ian Ahnfelt-Ronne, Corporate Vice President at Novo Nordisk A/S will give a featured presentation on "Potential Role of IL-20 in the Pathogenesis of Rheumatoid Arthritis" at the 11th Cytokines and Inflammation Conference to be held in San Diego, CA on January 31 - February 1, 2013 by GTC.

NNC0109-0012 (a novel, recombinant human monoclonal IgG4 anti-IL-20 antibody) is currently being investigated in patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis [RA]. NNC0109-0012 binds to human IL-20 with high affinity, and neutralizes the activity of IL-20 in cell-based assays. NNC0109-0012. Data from a phase 1 single-dose trial in healthy volunteers and patients with RA, and a multiple-dose phase 1 trial in RA patients did not raise any safety concerns. In a recent phase 2a trial with weekly administration of NNC0109-0012 and placebo to patients with RA reduced disease activity was shown in the RA patients, with significant improvement in DAS28 (CRP) observed after 1 week and through the 12 weeks of treatment. For the sub-group of RF/ACPA-positive patients, the treatment effects of NNC0109-0012 on all disease parameters were significantly larger than for all randomized patients at week 12, and were sustained during the 13 weeks follow-up period after cessation of drug administration. Again, treatment with NNC0109-0012 revealed no safety concerns. The data from this trial support the concept that IL-20 may play a role in the pathogenesis of RA. Further clinical testing of NNC0109-0012 in RA patients is in progress.

The GTC Cytokines and Inflammation conferences have become an established meeting point for academic scientists and industry clinical developers to exchange their complementary approaches in the field of cytokine biology. The organizations participating are a great selection of innovative medical organizations from academia (City of Hope, NCI, NIH, USC, Sanford-Burnham, Cleveland Clinic, UCLA, University of Florida, etc.), industry (Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Genentech, HUMIGEN, MedImmune, Biogen Idec, Merck Serono, Novo Nordisk, etc.) and, last but not -by any means- least, the US FDA.

This conference is also part of the 2nd Novel Immunotherapeutics Summit, which consists of a workshop, this track and three other concurrent tracks:
1) 5th Immunotherapeutics & Immunomonitoring
2) 2nd Allergy & Respiratory Drug Discovery
3) Immunotoxicity & Immunogenicity
4) Workshop: Immune Responses in Tumor Microenvironment

For more information, please visit http://www.gtcbio.com

GTC organizes conferences specifically for the biomedical and biopharmaceutical industries. Our goal is to facilitate the exchange of biopharmaceutical and biomedical intelligence between industry leaders, academic and government organizations, and the financial community.

GTC (Global Technology Community), LLC, is a privately held company founded in 2002.