Acceleron Initiates Phase 1 Clinical Trial With Innovative Muscle Drug ACE-083

Acceleron Pharma Inc.

, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel protein therapeutics for cancer and rare diseases, today announced it has initiated a phase 1 clinical trial of its novel muscle drug, ACE-083. ACE-083 is designed to selectively increase muscle mass and strength in the muscles in which the drug is administered by blocking proteins in the Transforming Growth Factor-Beta (TGF-β) protein superfamily that modulate muscle growth. “Acceleron has built a highly productive drug discovery platform based on our deep understanding of the biology of the TGF-β protein superfamily, and we are proud to bring another first-in-class protein therapeutic into human clinical trials,” said John Knopf, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Acceleron. “There is enormous unmet medical need to treat patients suffering from muscular and neuromuscular diseases, such as some forms of muscular dystrophy, and we believe that ACE-083 has the potential to treat a wide array of diseases in which patients have lost muscle mass and strength in specific muscles or muscle groups.”