Benzinga | Oct 19, 2020 07:32AM EDT

Intellia Therapeutics Receives Authorization to Initiate Phase 1 Clinical Trial of NTLA-2001 for Transthyretin Amyloidosis

Intellia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTLA), announced the authorization of its Clinical Trial Application (CTA) by the United Kingdom Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to initiate its Phase 1 study, which will evaluate NTLA-2001 for the treatment of hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis with polyneuropathy (hATTR-PN).

Intellia's lead candidate, NTLA-2001 could be the first curative treatment for ATTR. By applying the company's in vivo liver knockout technology, NTLA-2001 allows for the possibility of lifelong transthyretin (TTR) protein reduction after a single course of treatment. The investigational therapy is delivered via Intellia's proprietary non-viral lipid nanoparticle platform, which the company is also using to develop in vivo treatments for other diseases.

"Starting our global NTLA-2001 Phase 1 trial for ATTR patients is a major milestone in Intellia's mission to develop medicines to cure severe and life-threatening diseases," said Intellia's President and Chief Executive Officer John Leonard, M.D. "Our trial is the first step toward demonstrating that our therapeutic approach could have a permanent effect, potentially halting and reversing all forms of ATTR. Once we have established safety and the optimal dose, our goal is to expand this study and rapidly move to pivotal studies, in which we aim to enroll both polyneuropathy and cardiomyopathy patients."