Cerenis Therapeutics And Novasep Awarded 10.7M Euros Funding From The French Government For The Development CER-001, An HDL Mimetic

Main Category: Cardiovascular / Cardiology
Also Included In: Heart Disease
Article Date: 27 Jul 2010 - 5:00 PDT

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Cerenis Therapeutics SA (Cerenis), a biopharmaceutical company developing novel high-density lipoprotein (HDL) therapies to treat cardiovascular and other metabolic diseases, and Groupe Novasep (Novasep), a leading supplier of manufacturing solutions to the life sciences industries, announce today that they have received French Government funding through OSEO to finance the development of CER-001, a Cerenis HDL mimetic.

CER-001 represents a promising new approach in the fight against atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and has shown strong preclinical efficacy in promoting reverse lipid transport, a natural cardioprotective mechanism by which excess lipids are removed from peripheral tissues and from within atherosclerotic plaques then taken to the liver for elimination. The program is currently in Phase 1 clinical development for the treatment of post-acute coronary syndrome patients.

The funding from OSEO will allow the further progression of Cerenis' novel HDL therapy for orphan disease applications, which represent a large area of unmet need and the potential for an accelerated development pathway. Cerenis and Novasep have collaborated on the process development for CER-001 since 2007, focusing on downstream processing of the recombinant protein component. Under this funding and an expanded agreement, Novasep will be responsible for the global manufacturing of clinical and initial commercial supplies for the orphan drug development program.

"This is an exciting step toward the development of better treatments for cardiovascular disease. Novasep has demonstrated its core expertise in protein purification to solve a manufacturing problem that has challenged the industry for decades, and we look forward to expanding our relationship," said Jean-Louis Dasseux, President and CEO of Cerenis.

Antoine Baule, President of Novasep Process, the bioprocess division of Novasep, added "We are delighted to be working with Cerenis to further optimize the manufacturing process. There is excellent "biochemistry" between our teams and we expect to make significant progress alongside Cerenis, which is undoubtedly, one of the world experts in HDL mimetics."

About OSEO

The program "Industrial Strategic Innovation"(ISI) promotes the emergence of European champions. It supports ambitious plans for collaborative innovation in industrial purpose, carried by medium-sized companies (less than 5,000 employees) and SMEs (less than 250), all innovative. These projects are very promising in case of success: they seek to market products and technological breakthroughs that could not happen without public incitement. Aids range from €3 to 10 million in the form of grants and repayable advances.

Source:
Cerenis Therapeutics
Groupe Novasep

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