Bell's Palsy affects the facial nerve which enables people to smile and close their eyes.

The researchers at Dundee University found that treating the condition early on with prednisolone completely cured some people in three months and offered a 95 per cent chance of complete recovery after nine months.

Bell's Palsy affects one in 60 people during their lifetime and can strike almost anyone at any age; it more commonly affects pregnant women and people with diabetes, flu, colds and other upper respiratory ailments.

The cause of the condition remains a mystery, but it is widely treated with expensive anti-viral drugs.

The new study says that the relatively cheap steroid prednisolone was the "best treatment" and offered "significantly" better recovery rates than the anti-viral agent acyclovir, which they say "has little benefit".

Professor Frank Sullivan, the director of the Scottish School of Primary Care at the university, and his team examined about 500 sufferers and he says the new treatment offers a significant improvement in how Bell's Palsy is dealt with and will make a real difference to patients.

Professor Sullivan says the study gives clear-cut evidence that early treatment with steroids offers by far the best results for complete recovery.

The study was led by Dundee University, with support from other Scottish universities at Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow and GP services around the country.

The findings have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"We are delighted to enter into this deal with Lilly, an established leader in diabetes care, to develop teplizumab in multiple T-cell-mediated autoimmune diseases and to advance the molecule toward regulatory submission for recent-onset type 1 diabetes," stated Dr. Scott Koenig, president and CEO of MacroGenics. "We also look forward to working with Lilly to develop next generation CD3 product candidates to potentially treat a variety of autoimmune diseases, such as psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis."

About Teplizumab

Teplizumab, also called MGA031, is a humanized, non-Fc receptor binding, anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody. Teplizumab binds to an epitope of the CD3- epsilon chain expressed on mature T lymphocytes and, by doing so, may modulate the pathological immunologic responses underlying multiple autoimmune diseases. Specifically, teplizumab may inhibit unwanted effector T cells and enhances beneficial regulatory T cell functions, thus promoting immune tolerance.

About the PROTEGE Trial

The PROTEGE trial, a global, pivotal Phase II/III clinical trial study, is evaluating the safety and efficacy of three teplizumab dosing regimens administered at the start of the study and again at six months in individuals with recent-onset type 1 diabetes ages 8 to 35 who are up to 12 weeks from their diagnosis.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks and destroys the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas. Researchers believe teplizumab may control the T lymphocytes that mediate destruction of the insulin-producing beta cells of the islets of the pancreas. In doing so, they believe teplizumab may have the ability to preserve and protect the remaining beta cells of the pancreas.

Additional information regarding the PROTEGE trial is available online at www.protegediabetes.

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