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.