This Week in Sickle Cell News May to may24th to the 31st

By Sean Marshall

Slow news week for the end of May there were however the latest medical news involving sickle cell anemia was reveled this week seems to be promising. News Medical released information pertaining to Mast Therapeutics initiates Phase 3 extension study of vepoloxamer in sickle cell disease. What this means is that Mast Therapeutics, a clinical bio-pharmaceutical company is pushing to develop non therapeutic drugs to treat sickle cell disease and it is in its later stages of testing.

According to the report the company has recently created a drug that should ease the pain as well as cure some aspects of sickle cell disease. The drug itself has been labeled as vepoloxamer but the study has been given a catcher name “EPIC-E.”

There will however have to conduct a study on human beings before it is released into the market place. This is where the “EPIC-E” goes into effect. The study has been initiated and will “enroll patients who have completed the Company's Phase 3 EPIC study and are hospitalized for a subsequent vaso-occlusive crisis.” That is anyone who suffered from sickle cell disease as well as heart conditions.

The company itself has gone on the record as saying "We have initiated EPIC-E consistent with our prior guidance and plan to make this extension study available at almost all of our more than 70 EPIC sites." This is all good in theory but drug companies have said this before and not reveled all information to the public so take this with a grain of salt.

The original article can be found here:

http://www.news-medical.net/news/20150526/Mast-Therapeutics-initiates-Phase-3-extension-study-of-vepoloxamer-in-sickle-cell-disease.aspx

If there are any comments questions or concerns email us at thesickleinme@gmail.com