Crohn’s patient sees vast improvement in digestion with Q-drug clinical trial

WATERLOO — Patrick Sapinski suffered for more than a decade with symptoms of Crohn’s disease before discovering a new clinical trial that gave him a full year of relief from symptoms.

Qu Biologics, a Canadian biotech firm, has developed a treatment that’s showing signs of eliminating the inflammatory bowel disease, and it is moving into Phase 2 of clinical trials.

Sapinski took part in Phase 1 of the Qu Biologics trial in 2015 and saw improvements within just a month, resulting in a year of remission.

The treatment aims to eliminate the disease altogether by using immunotherapy as opposed to current methods, which mostly reduce the effects of the disease by using immune-suppressing medications.

“They’re really onto something. The way their treatment affected me was better than any other Crohn’s drug I had taken,” said Sapinski.

The 31-year-old says the trial was his “last resort” before inevitable surgery, which he wanted to avoid. He suffered from really bad inflammation in his large intestine, and doctors told him he would die if he didn’t get the surgery.

Just a month before the operation was scheduled, he discovered the Vancouver-based trial. He had a stricture in his intestine, causing severe digestive problems.

“It turns out with the right treatment, that stricture can open up and let the food pass through again, and I would say my digestion was completely normal when I was on the Qdrug. I hadn’t experienced such normal digestion in, like, 15 years, before my first Crohn’s symptoms.”

The treatment included an “insulin-sized injection under the skin around the belly,” Sapinski said.

The treatment, which is completely free, is continuing into Phase 2 of the clinical trials in select areas in Canada, including at McMaster University in Hamilton.

Sapinski, who works at Maple Precision in Waterloo as a programmer, was diagnosed with Crohn’s when he was 15 and says he hadn’t been able to digest food properly since before then, that is until he got the treatment.

“For that year, I had a fully restored life; I was able to do whatever I wanted,” said Sapinski, who moved to Vancouver after he completed his treatment and has since moved back to the area.

Sapinski’s symptoms have fully returned, but he hopes to get another crack at the drug trial soon (in Phase 2). He also hopes it can eventually get approved for full usage.

“(Crohn’s) could be deadly,” said Sapinski. “It can be really scary, especially if I’m travelling and I don’t have access to medicines or foods.”

Qu Biologics is looking for patients from southern Ontario to take part in the clinical trial. More information on the treatment can be obtained by emailing info@quibd.com. The company is looking to change the lives of those suffering from inflammatory bowel disease such as Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis.

“Of all the research that I’ve done, this is the most promising drug in Canada, and I really hope they can get it approved soon,” said Sapinski.