Arthritis news and arthritis widget
Arthritis news and arthritis widget
Friday, February 06, 2009
Medicalnewstoday.com
Medivir Designates MIV-710 A Candidate Drug (CD) For Osteoporosis And Osteoarthritis
Medivir is developing selective cathepsin K inhibitors for the treatment of osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. Medivir has now designated a highly active and selective small molecule inhibitor of cathepsin K, MIV-710, as Candidate Drug (CD).
MIV-710 shows very pronounced efficacy, based on biomarkers for osteoporosis in preclinical models, with a long duration of effect after once daily oral dosing.
MIV-710 dose-dependently attenuates the break down of bone, the hallmark of osteoporosis, whilst maintaining the beneficial bone formation. MIV-710 is expected to be dosed conveniently only once daily as a tablet and at low doses, due it's favorable potency and pharmacokinetic properties.
Scientific background A selective inhibitor of the cathepsin K enzyme is believed to play a central role in osteoclastic bone resorption, particularly in the degradation of the protein component of bone. Inhibition of cathepsin K is a novel approach to the treatment of osteoporosis that differs from those of currently approved treatments. By developing a drug that attenuates this activity, excessive bone degradation, as occurs in e.g. patients with osteoporosis, can be normalized and the imbalance in bone turnover can be restored. In disease models Medivir has shown that the pathological resorption (break down) of bone can be dose dependently suppressed by blocking cathepsin K activity. MIV-710 also demonstrates potent effects in a human cell-based model of bone resorption.
Therapeutic opportunities The main clinical indication for MIV-710 is osteoporosis but included are also RA (rheumatoid arthritis), OA (osteoarthritis) and bone metastasis. Osteoporosis (brittle bones) arises from an imbalance between skeletal formation and resorption where the equilibrium is skewed towards excessive bone loss. There is a large unmet medical need for new and improved treatments that can regulate and suppress the progression of pathological bone erosion. Osteoporosis is the second largest health problem in the world and a major cause of death, disability and medical expenditure. The presently dominating treatment principles are bisphosphonates and oestrogen receptor modulators.
"We are extremely pleased to have developed a new CD in the cathepsin K program showing these highly competitive and advantageous properties. Medivir has previously shown proof-of-principle in a phase I clinical trial with it's earlier cathepsin K inhibitor MIV-701. The very favorable efficacy and expected convenient low dosing makes MIV-710 a strong complement to the broad Medivir cathepsin K program. This is yet another clear sign of Medivir's productivity and competence in the development of efficacious orally active protease inhibiting drugs", comments Medivir VP Discovery Research, Professor Bertil Samuelsson.
Next step
Medivir is now in a strong position to move into outlicensing discussions for the cathepsin K program including MIV-710 and MIV-701 which both have the potential to become a first-in-class treatment option in this important disease area.
About osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is a big public health problem affecting more than 75 million people in the U.S., Europe, South America and Japan alone. It is a disease in which the bone mineral density and strength of bone are reduced increasing the risk of bone fracture as bones become more porous and fragile. The most common fractures associated with osteoporosis occur at the hip, spine and wrist and the risk of having an osteoporosis-related fracture increases with age. One in three women over age 50 will experience an osteoporotic fracture, as will one in five men. According to the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF), the worldwide incidence of hip fracture is approximately 1.6 million each year, and by 2050 this number could reach between 4.5 million and 6.3 million.
http://www.medivir.se
Contact Medical News Today
Advertising and stat/viewer enquiries:
Peter Hill, Marketing Director. + 44 (0) 161 408 2546 (UK)
advertising@medicalnewstoday.com
Editorial enquiries:
Christian Nordqvist, Editor. +44 (0) 1625 415 347 (UK)
editors@medicalnewstoday.com
Technical enquiries:
Alastair Hazell, Technical Director
admin@medicalnewstoday.com
About Us
Medical News Today is owned by MediLexicon International Ltd with head offices in the United Kingdom. It is the largest independent health and medical news website on the Internet. The Medical News Today website contains several sections:
Health News
Medical News Today is updated with more than 150 articles on weekdays and over 40 articles at weekends - more than any other health news website. The website is divided into 117 medical categories/specialities, allowing you to browse only the news relevant to you. Advanced news archive searches allow you to quickly find the news you are interested in, from over 100,000 archived articles.
Health Videos
Medical News Today has teamed up with Healthology to provide visitors with a library of informative videos on a variety of health subjects. New videos are added regularly.
Forums
The forums allow the opportunity for visitors to comment on health news articles published on Medical News Today.
There are several free services provided on the site - sign up to news alerts and receive an email when news is added to the catgories chosen, weekly email newsletters or an RSS/XML newsfeed / JavaScript newsfeed - via a reader for personal use or to display headlines on your website. Your email address and personal details are never passed on, or sold, to 3rd parties - they are used only to supply the services requested and for statistical analysis. Please see our privacy policy for further details.
Note: A list of web sites that are currently using our JavaScript news feeds is available here.
If you have a Facebook account, our health news headlines are now available to view on there with our health news Facebook application.
More than 2 million unique visitors come to medicalnewstoday.com every month. Sister sites include www.medilexicon.com - the most popular medical abbreviation search facility on the Internet - and www.hospitalsworldwide.com - a searchable database of hospitals throughout the world. The 3 websites attract more than 3 million unique visitors every month.
Medical News Today carries 3rd party advertising and also licenses content for republishing - for more information on commercial opportunities please visit our advertising information page or contact advertising@medicalnewstoday.com.
© 2009 MediLexicon International Ltd
Votes:27
Comments: 0