On Monday Rxi Pharmaceuticals (RXII) announced that it had initiated a phase 2 trial to treat patients with warts. The phase 2 trial is known as RXI-SCP-1502, and will use the company’s Samcyprone gel. Samcyprone is a gel that creates a T-cell response to the disease being targeted. Samcyprone had been used for many decades to treat several conditions, but has yet to be approved as a drug by the FDA. 

Rxi is initiating this phase 2 trial to seek FDA approval for Samcyprone in cutaneous warts. The patients that will be recruited must have had their warts for at least 4 weeks. When patients are treated with Samcyprone at first they will receive one treatment on their arm to determine sensitization, and then one treatment on their wart. 

If all goes well the patients will continue treatment for a total of 10 weeks straight. The patients in the trial will then be evaluated for efficacy of Samcyprone. This will be done by seeing how many warts were cleared with treatment of Samcyprone. RXi investigators of the trial will use the Investigators Global Assessment Score — IGAS — and wart measuring tools.

Samcyprone brings a second phase 2 clinical product to Rxi’s pipeline.  The first and current ongoing phase 2 trial in skin scarring uses RXI-109. It is still in the process of adding more cohorts in the coming months. The company states that it expects to announce additional clinical results from all of its other clinical programs in 2016.