Halia touts Phase II success with HT-6184

Utah, USA-based privately-held biotech Halia Therapeutics has announced promising top-line data resulting in the advancement to the second stage of its Phase II clinical trial evaluating HT-6184, a first-in-class allosteric NEK7/NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitor given orally, in patients with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (LR-MDS).

The initial cohort of 18 patients with LR-MDS demonstrated a hematological improvement-erythroid (HI-E) response to HT-6184 treatment following 16 weeks of monotherapy, exceeding the pre-set requirement of at least three responders. Having achieved this critical milestone, the trial now advances to its second stage enrolling an additional 8-10 patients to further validate HT-6184's potential.

HT-6184 is the company’s lead investigational candidate and, in pre-clinical testing has shown potential to enhance and sustain weight loss when combined with semaglutide. The pre-clinical data suggests that the combination treatment leads to significant weight loss beyond the 15% plateau typically observed with semaglutide treatment alone, Halia noted.