Israel-based biopharmaceutical company RedHill Biopharma Ltd. recently presented its RHB-104 Phase III Crohn’s disease program at the International Research Symposium for Game Changing Concepts in Crohn’s Medicine on Sunday, August 16, 2015 in Deerfield, IL. Representing RedHill was Patrick McLean, the company’s Product Manager for RHB-104, a highly promising, experimental antibiotic combination treatment for Crohn’s disease.

The symposium was an opportunity for hundreds of experts and developers to share research and development updates on Crohn’s disease. Notable among the current experiential Crohn’s treatments are those designed to address a suspected cause of this type of IBD, Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP). RedHill’s RHB-104 offers a potential antibiotic solution to MAP.

McLean presented on early clinical findings on the anti-MAP therapy along with an overview of the Company’s ongoing RHB-104 Phase III clinical trial for the disease as well. RHB-104, an experimental, orally-available combination treatment, has been shown in previous clinical trials to have potent intracellular, anti-mycobacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. The ongoing Phase III study (MAP US) is being conducted throughout the US and in other select regions as well. A second Phase III study (MAP EU) is in the works for countries in the European Union and will run parallel to the MAP US study.

Those interested in learning more about the ongoing MAP US Phase III study can visit www.ClinicalTrials.gov and use the identifier number NCT01951326.

RedHill Biopharma Ltd. specializes in developing late clinical-stage, proprietary, orally-administered, small molecule drugs for the treatment of inflammatory and gastrointestinal diseases, including gastrointestinal cancers. Replays of the symposium and RedHill’s presentation will be made available here.

In other IBD research news, in a recent study presented during the European League Against Rheumatism Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR), a team of researchers found that hepatitis B reactivation after treatment with biologic treatment for rheumatic conditions or IBD was unlikely.

As part of the study, a woman with acute HBV and Crohn’s disease was found to have HB reactivation. The initial treatment for this case was with azathioprine and adalimumab. Following a poor clinical response, the researchers switched the patient to infliximab. At that time, the patient was not anti-HB positive. The researchers observed that there was a HBV reactivation after 3 months of infliximab inception, and the researchers decided to discontinue Infliximab and observed that the patient recovered with antiviral therapy.