HYC750 is composed of hyaluronic acid (HA) fragments of 350-750 kDa in size, and is protected by issued patents in the US and in multiple EU countries. HA is used in various forms in a large number of commercially available products for applications such as ophthalmologic surgery, rheumatoid arthritis treatment, joint mobilization, wound healing, and as a carrier matrix for cells and drugs. In all of these applications, HA has demonstrated an exemplary safety profile.

Intravenously injected HYC750 has already undergone pre-clinical testing and animal toxicology studies, as well as one preliminary human clinical trial, which have confirmed its safety. In a study of healthy human volunteers, HYC750 also demonstrated the ability to mobilize several cell types from the bone marrow to peripheral blood, including polymorphonuclear cells and several not normally found in blood, such as erythroblasts, plasma cells, and early stage erythrocytes.  An increase in blood counts of a number of small cells, which included T cells, B cells, and probably CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells, was also observed.

Based on these results, Orcrist believes that further development of HYC750 as a therapeutic agent will yield a promising new mobilizer, and is currently in the process of finalizing pre-clinical work intended to further characterize the drug’s potency and specificity with respect to mobilization. The company expects to embark on a formal Phase 1 clinical trial in early 2009 to confirm safety and specific cell types mobilized.