Take a look at this news on a new drug for lowering cholesterol. Read on:
Biotech firm Esperion Therapeutics has entered the second phase of the government's required three-stage regulatory process to test the effectiveness of its top drug candidate, the company announced today.
The firm, led by Ann Arbor entrepreneur Roger Newton, the scientist who co-discovered "bad" cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor, said it had started its Phase 2 clinical study for a drug currently known as ETC-1002. The drug aims to help the body fight triglycerides and LDL cholesterol.
The Phase 2 study follows a Phase 1 study that was launched in fall 2009. Esperion said the Phase 1 study showed promising results, including the ability to lower LDL cholesterol and early indications that the drug is safe to consume.
Esperion said a second Phase 2 study will be launched later this year to study the drug's other possible benefits, which the company believes could include the ability to raise "good" HDL cholesterol and regulate glucose.
The current Phase 2 study will last 12 weeks and involves 176 patients with a history of hypercholesterolemia, a condition in which patients have consistently high cholesterol.
The development of this drug is separate from Esperion's ongoing work with the Cleveland Clinic, a partnership through which researchers are developing a therapy that would lower HDL cholesterol.
The market for the therapies Esperion is developing is lucrative.
"Cardio-metabolic diseases remain the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among men and women in industrialized countries worldwide," Newton said in a statement.
Esperion operates out of the 57,000-square-foot Michigan Life Science Innovation Center in Plymouth Township, a business incubator operated by economic development group Ann Arbor SPARK.
Newton first co-founded Esperion in the late 1990s and sold it in 2004 to Pfizer for $1.3 billion. Pfizer closed its Esperion division in 2007, but Newton raised venture capital funding and licensed technology from Pfizer to restart the company in 2008.
more from here http://www.annarbor.com/business-review/roger-newtons-esperion-therapeutics-enters-next-phase-of-drug-development/
No comments:
Post a Comment