Suven Life Sciences Initiates Phase I Clinical Trials In Europe Of SUVN-502 For Alzheimer's Disease

Main Category: Alzheimer's / Dementia
Also Included In: Clinical Trials / Drug Trials
Article Date: 20 Jun 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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Suven Life Sciences Ltd, a Drug Discovery and development company announced at Bio-2008, San Diego that they commenced Phase I clinical trials of SUVN-502, a potent, safe, highly selective, brain penetrant and orally active antagonist at a nonperipheral CNS receptor site 5-HT6, intended for the symptomatic treatment of Alzheimer's disease and other disorders of memory and cognition like Attention deficient hyperactivity, Parkinson, Schizophrenia.

Stimulation of 5-HT6 receptors in the brain has been shown to increase the release of acetylcholine and glutamate levels and has shown activity in several animal models with cognitive-enhancing properties of memory impairment.

The study is being conducted at Basel, Switzerland under a Clinical Trial Application (CTA) approved by SwissMedic, the regulatory authority of Switzerland.

The Phase I study being conducted using single and multiple oral doses with the objective of assessing safety and bioavailability of SUVN-502 in 67 healthy human beings. The single ascending dose (SAD) studies are expected to be complete by Sept-2008 and multiple ascending dose (MAD) studies are to be conducted during Oct-Dec 2008.

"SUVN-502 is an exciting molecule which fared very well in preclinical studies and the first NCE of Suven to enter the clinic from a pipeline of six NCEs. The CNS market and especially the cognition is amongst the largest, about $20 billion potential market opportunity globally and this novel target presents an excellent opportunity," says Venkat Jasti, CEO of Suven Life Sciences Ltd.

"Pre-clinical studies have demonstrated SUVN-502 to be highly potent, safe and orally available with good bioavailability across species tested. The molecule also exhibited excellent selectivity over other targets. We believe that SUVN-502 has great potential to become a novel treatment for disorders affecting memory and cognition in Alzheimer's and other dementia" says Dr. Ramakrishna Nirogi, Vice President, Discovery Research, Suven Life Sciences.

Suven is also in discussions for potential licensing partners for this compound. Timing of the licensing would depend on the deal terms and ability to get co-promotion rights in some of the targeted markets. The Company targets launching this molecule in 2012. Other molecules in the same category currently under development include GSK's molecule presently in Phase II.

Suven Life Sciences Ltd

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