ChemoCentryx, Inc. announced the initiation of a Phase I clinical trial for CCX507, the company's novel, wholly-owned inhibitor of the chemokine receptor known as CCR9. The double-blind, placebo-controlled study will evaluate the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of CCX507 in healthy adult subjects. ChemoCentryx's CCR9 inhibitor program also includes vercirnon, a first generation orally administered CCR9 inhibitor discovered and originally developed at ChemoCentryx.

Building upon promising results from a Phase IIb clinical trial which ChemoCentryx conducted for patients with moderate-to-severe Crohn's disease, vercirnon is currently in pivotal Phase III clinical trials conducted by the Company's partner GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Data from the first pivotal study is expected in the second half of 2013. Unlike vercirnon, CCX507 is wholly-owned by ChemoCentryx, and not allied with a pharma partner at this time.