AB Science Publications Receive BioMed Central’s ‘Highly Accessed’ Designation

PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:

AB Science SA (Paris:AB) (NYSE Euronext - FR0010557264 - AB), a pharmaceutical company specializing in the research, development and commercialization of protein kinase inhibitors (PKIs), announces that publications reporting results from its human phase 2 studies of masitinib for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis have been designated with the status of ‘Highly accessed’ by the publisher BioMed Central (BMC).

The 'Highly accessed' graphic appears on journal table of contents and search results to identify those articles that have been especially highly accessed, relative to their age, and the journal in which they were published. Articles must be at least 14 days old in order to acquire the designation: 'Highly accessed'. Once an article has qualified as 'Highly accessed' it will remain permanently flagged as such. These download statistics include accesses to the full text, abstract and PDF of the article on the relevant journal’s website. It does not include accesses from PubMed Central or other archive sites. The total access statistics for each article are therefore likely to be significantly higher.

The article ‘Masitinib as an adjunct therapy for mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease: a randomised, placebo-controlled phase 2 trial’ that was recently published in the journal Alzheimer’s Research and Therapy, has been accessed via the journal’s webpage 1500 times during the first 30 days.

Early publication of this article was announced last month (press release dated April 19th, 2011). The finalized article version has now been released and is freely accessible online from BioMed Central's peer-reviewed journal Alzheimer’s Research and Therapy (http://alzres.com/content/3/2/16).
Key findings included:

• Phase 2 study establishes proof-of-concept that oral masitinib has potential therapeutic benefits in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease.
• Overall, results add new scientific data to the important question of the potential role of anti inflammatory agents in the management of Alzheimer’s disease.
• AB Science is actively preparing to launch a phase 3 study, pivotal in the process of registration of masitinib in this indication.

Commenting previously on this study, Professor Marc Verny (Head of the Geriatric Department, Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris and study co-investigator) said: « Masitinib administered as an add-on therapy to standard care during 24 weeks showed promising signs of retarding the rate of cognitive decline of Alzheimer’s disease compared to placebo, with an acceptable tolerance profile. Although the size of this study was too small to make any definitive conclusions about treatment efficacy, the evidence is sufficiently compelling to warrant further phase 3 investigation.»

This is the second publication from AB Science to receive the designation of ‘Highly accessed’ article by BioMed Central. Indeed, the article ‘Masitinib in the treatment of active rheumatoid arthritis: results of a multicentre, open-label, dose-ranging, phase 2a study’ that was published in 2009 in the journal Arthritis Research & Therapy, also received the ‘Highly accessed’ designation, and has been accessed via the journal’s webpage over 9000 times since publication.

Publication of results from the first human phase 2 study of masitinib carried-out in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis was announced previously (BioMed Central press release dated June 6^th, 2009). The article is freely accessible online from the journal Arthritis Research & Therapy and can be cited as: Tebib J, et al. Arthritis Res Ther. 2009;11:R95 (http://arthritis-research.com/content/11/3/R95).
Key findings included:

• Treatment with masitinib significantly reduced the severity of active arthritis.
• Clinical improvement was supported by laboratory evidence of reduced inflammation.
• Results help establish the critical role of mast cells in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis and demonstrate their viability as a therapeutic target.
• AB Science is actively preparing to launch a phase 3 study, pivotal in the process of registration of masitinib in this indication.

Professor Olivier Hermine, President of the scientific committee of AB Science and co-corresponding author on this paper commented at the time: « In choosing which interventions to use for the management of rheumatoid arthritis, it is important to recognize that treatment should aim to keep the disease in remission and not be used intermittently to manage exacerbations. We are encouraged from this study that masitinib not only appears to be effective, but that within the first 3 months of treatment the most notable side-effects were over, possibly making it suitable for long-term treatment regimens. »

About masitinib
Masitinib is a new orally administered tyrosine kinase inhibitor that targets mast cells, important cells for immunity, as well as a limited number of kinases that play key roles in various cancers. Owing to its novel mechanism of action, masitinib can be developed in a large number of conditions in oncology, in inflammatory diseases and in certain diseases of the central nervous system. Through its activity of inhibiting certain kinases that are essential in some oncogenic processes, masitinib may have an effect on tumor regression, alone or in combination with chemotherapy. Through its activity on the mast cell and certain kinases essential to the activation of the inflammatory cells and fibrosing tissue remodeling, masitinib can have an effect on the symptoms associated with some inflammatory and central nervous system diseases.

About AB Science
Founded in 2001, AB Science is a pharmaceutical company specializing in the research, development and commercialization of protein kinase inhibitors (PKIs), a new class of targeted molecules whose action is to modify signaling pathways within cells. Through these PKIs, the Company targets diseases with high unmet medical needs (cancer, inflammatory diseases and central nervous system diseases), in both human and veterinary medicines. AB Science has developed its own portfolio of molecules including masitinib, which has already been registered in veterinary medicine in Europe and in the USA, and is pursuing nine phase 3 studies in human medicine, including five studies on-going in pancreatic cancer, GIST, in metastatic melanoma expressing JM mutation of c-Kit, in mastocytosis, and severe persistent asthma.

Further information is available on AB Science’s website: www.ab-science.com

This document contains prospective information. No guarantee can be given as for the realization of these forecasts, which are subject to those risks described in documents deposited by the Company to the Authority of the financial markets, including trends of the economic conjuncture, the financial markets and the markets on which AB Science is present.