Innovate Biopharmaceuticals Inc., of Raleigh, N.C., said it signed an agreement with Amarex Clinical Research to provide data management and biostatistics for its planned phase III larazotide trial in celiac disease. Larazotide acetate has a mechanism of action that renormalizes the dysfunctional intestinal barrier by decreasing intestinal permeability and reducing antigen trafficking, such as gliadin fragments in celiac disease, and bacterial toxins and immunogenic antigens in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.