French-Canadian pharmaceutical firm Angany has announced that it has received clearance to initiate its first clinical trial investigating a vaccine intended to treat allergy to cats.

The company has confirmed that the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has given it the go-ahead to launch the trial to evaluate its vaccine candidate ANG-101 at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London.

This study is the first of its kind to be conducted in humans. The open-label and single-site trial will evaluate the safety, allergenicity and immunogenicity of the vaccine. The study will be conducted using patients allergic to cat dander.

At present there is no direct treatment for cat allergies, but over-the-counter medication can relieve the symptoms of allergies but does not directly address the condition, according to Angany.

ANG-101 is a therapeutic vaccine that provides a disruptive disease-modifying approach. It is derived from Angany's proprietary eBioparticle-Potentiated Immunotherapy technology. The active ingredient in the vaccine is a 140 nm enveloped bioparticle that mimics a virus in shape and size with its surface covered with thousands of copies of cat major allergen.

Dr Louis-Philippe Vézina, president and CEO of Angany, said: “We have named this clinical study ‘HOPE’ as this important milestone in Angany’s vaccine development programme should raise new hope for millions of people affected by allergies worldwide. ANG-101 is a first from a vaccine portfolio in development that aims to cover major allergies in humans and companion animals." 

This is not the first trial this year to look at therapies aimed at tackling allergies. In July of this year, Intrommune Therapeutics announced that a trial into a peanut allergy treatment, which is delivered as a toothpaste, reached a final milestone.