• Abbott Laboratories, of Abbott Park, Ill., said a Phase II study if ABT-874 demonstrated significantly reduced psoriasis symptoms in the majority of patients treated. At 12 weeks, nine of 10 patients with moderate to severe psoriasis achieved 75 percent improvement in psoriasis signs and symptoms in four of the five dosing groups receiving ABT-874, vs. 3 percent of patients receiving placebo. More than half of patients achieved 90 percent improvement, in the same four dosing groups. ABT-874 is a fully human monoclonal antibody designed to target and neutralize interleukin-12 and interleukin-23, proteins associated with inflammation in psoriasis and other autoimmune disorders.

• KAI Pharmaceuticals Inc., of South San Francisco, said it began dosing subjects in a Phase I trial of KAI-1455, a selective epsilon protein kinase C activator being developed to reduce ischemic injury during planned surgical procedures. The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study will evaluate safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics in healthy males. In preclinical studies, KAI-1455 showed a significant reduction in organ damage when it was delivered prior to the ischemic event.

• Marinus Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Branford, Conn., is enrolling patients in a Phase IIb study of Ganaxolone, its lead compound, as an adjunctive treatment in adults suffering from partial onset seizures. The trial is designed to involve patients between the ages of 18 and 69 who are taking no more than two anti-epilepsy drugs. Ganaxolone also is in a separate Phase IIb study in infants with infantile spasms.

• Medivation Inc., of San Francisco, said new data from the mild and moderate subgroups of Alzheimer's disease patients in its six-month Phase II study of Dimebon showed that both subgroups improved vs. placebo on all five efficacy endpoints studied. The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase II trial was conducted with 183 patients in Russia. Medivation previously had disclosed results showing the study demonstrated statistically significant improvement vs. placebo on the primary endpoint relation to cognition. The new data were presented at the American Academy of Neurology's meeting in Boston.

• Prestwick Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Washington, said clinical data were presented showing Xenazine (tetrabenazine) maintained reduction of chorea associated with Huntington's disease up to 80 weeks in those patients who successfully completed treatment in a 13-week trial. Forty-five of the original 75 patients completed 80 weeks of the open-label study. At week 80, disease symptoms were reduced in a statistically significantly manner vs. baseline, the company said. Prestwick has filed for FDA approval of the product, which is designed to reversibly stop the release of dopamine. It already is approved in certain markets outside the U.S.

• PTC Therapeutics Inc., of South Plainfield, N.J., disclosed interim data from an open-label Phase II trial of PTC124 in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy due to a nonsense mutation. Data from the first two cohorts of the three-cohort study showed treatment with PTC124 was associated with increases in muscle dystrophin expression and reductions in serum creatinine kinase values in at least 50 percent of evaluable patients. Results also showed favorable safety and tolerability profiles. Data were presented at the American Academy of Neurology meeting in Boston.