Benzinga | Feb 17, 2021 12:48PM EST

Inhibikase Initiates Early-Stage Study Of Parkinson's Candidate

* Inhibikase Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: IKT) has dosed the first patients in its Phase 1 trial of IkT-148009, an Abelson Tyrosine Kinase (c-Abl) inhibitor, for the treatment of Parkinson's disease.

* This randomized Phase 1 study in healthy volunteers will assess the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics (PK) of IkT-148009 to identify the maximum tolerated dose in single and multiple ascending dose settings.

* In preclinical animal models, the drug candidate demonstrated that once a day, oral therapy with IkT-148009 can halt and reverse the functional loss in the brain and gastrointestinal tract.

* Activation of c-Abl, drives biochemical pathways and processes that lead to degradation of the neurons affected in Parkinson's disease. Inhibition of c-Abl may restore functional loss for neurons that have not fully degraded in the brain and remodel neurons in the gastrointestinal tract, two major organ systems affected by the disease.

* Price Action: IKT gained 9.5% at $7.72 in the market trading hours on the last check Wednesday.