Hamden-based Vanessa Research Inc. said health regulators in Turkey have given it the greenlight to conduct a Phase II trial on its flagship investigational drug, which aims to treat a rare genetic disease that can be deadly for young infants.
VRI’s drug, Shylicine, targets microvillus inclusion disease (MVID), also known as Davidson’s Disease.
Like cholera but sometimes even more severe, MVID causes chronic diarrhea in infants, which can kill them unless they receive medical treatment in the form of “massive amounts” of intravenous fluids,” VRI said.
The recent approval by the Turkish Ministry of Health is “critical, given that a relatively high volume of MVID cases are located in the country,” CRI CEO Norman Gray said in a statement.
Turkey is the first clinical trial for Shylicine, though VRI hopes to conduct trials in Europe and the U.S. as well at some point. The trial is expected to last 12 weeks.
Launched in 2015, the company has 20 Connecticut employees and another 10 internationally, according to spokeswoman Christina McGrath.
Besides its Hamden headquarters, VRI also has a satellite lab at UConn’s Technology Incubation Program facility in Farmington. The company’s website also lists offices in Budapest, the United Kingdom and Spain.
Privately-held VRI has a few non-drug products on the market already, including a portable cryogenic freezing device for tissue samples, called Seal’n Freeze, a skin product called KLAREXbalm, and a UV radiation detection product called SOLaware.
