Tag Archives: Alba Therapeutics

Alba Therapeutics has been working on a therapy for celiac disease the past 8 years. Alba’s therapy, Larazotide Acetate, is the first to reach phase 3 clinical trials, where it will be given to large groups of people.

When Alba first contacted us about helping to promote their phase 2 clinical trial, we investigated the therapy’s mechanism and were glad to see the drug is not absorbed into the body, but acts in the intestine to stop gluten from being absorbed. Better yet, it worked. We covered Larazote Acetate in our article, Medical Research Study to Test a Potential Celiac Disease Therapy Is Underway and Signing up Participants.

A real therapy for celiac disease is one step closer. Alba just sent us the following press release concerning their deal with Innovate Biopharmaceuticals to produce the therapy.  Read More »

There is no cure for celiac disease. But, there may soon be a new therapy to go along with a gluten-free diet.

A Phase II medical research study to test a potential therapy for people with celiac disease is underway and signing up participants at .

The investigational drug, Larazotide Acetate, was developed by Alba Therapeutics. It passed Phase I trials and is now being studied to determine how effective it is in different doses and whether side effects develop. Alba Therapeutics was co-founded by celiac disease researcher, Dr. Alessio Fasano, director of the Celiac Disease Center at the University of Maryland.¹

The therapy is based on Dr. Fasano’s discovery that tight junctions between cells in the intestine can be opened or closed and that gluten relaxes these junctions. It is this process that leads to gluten improperly crossing into the body, thereby eliciting an immune reaction that leads to inflammation and damage characteristic of celiac disease.

“The reality is that the paracellular space is a gate, not a wall or fence. And if material gets through that space – even if it is only 1 to 5% of what normally travels through the cell – it could be associated with disease.”
-Alessio Fasano, MD¹

Dr. Fasano discovered the potentially therapeutic utility of down-regulating intestinal permeability of celiac disease.¹ In other words, he discovered that Read More »