Disc Medicine Inc. announced that the first patient has been enrolled in the National Institutes of Health-sponsored Phase 1/2 clinical trial of bitopertin in Diamond-Blackfan anemia (DBA). Bitopertin is an investigational, orally administered glycine transporter 1 (GlyT1) inhibitor designed to modulate heme biosynthesis. The Phase 1/2 study will be a single-arm, dose-escalation trial of bitopertin in DBA patients who either have steroid-refractory and/or relapsed disease or are unable to tolerate systemic corticosteroids.

The study includes planned dose escalation within each participant to continually assess for hematologic response. Upon completion of the main treatment period, patients may continue on extended treatment within the trial. This study will be conducted and funded by the NIH under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), under the direction of Dr. Cynthia Dunbar, M.D., the NIH Distinguished Investigator and Chief Translational Stem Cell Biology Branch, and Head, Molecular Hematopoiesis Section, NHLBI, with Dr. David Young, M.D., Ph.D., NHLBI Staff Clinician as Principal Investigator.

The content of this research is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.