NEW YORK and LONDON, July 13, 2016
Akari Therapeutics (NASDAQ: AKTX), an emerging growth, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, announced today the approval by the UK Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to conduct a Phase 2 trial in patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH). Coversin is a second-generation complement inhibitor that acts on complement component-C5, preventing release of C5a and formation of C5b-9 (also known as the membrane attack complex or MAC). C5 inhibition is growing in importance in a range of rare autoimmune diseases related to dysregulation of the complement component of the immune system, including paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), atypical Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (aHUS), and Guillain Barré syndrome (GBS).