Adenosine Therapeutics awarded grant to develop drug eluting stents to prevent restenosis

Dec 6 2004

Adenosine Therapeutics announced today the award of a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institutes of Health.

The grant will fund research in collaboration with the University of Virginia to test the effectiveness of combining two potent anti-inflammatory drugs, ATL146e and a type IV PDE inhibitor in a drug eluting stent. The amount of the award is $1,247,577 over a two-year period.

"Our research has shown success in reducing intimal hyperplasia when using infused ATL146e, the company's proprietary anti-inflammatory agent. Furthermore, these effects can be enhanced when ATL146e is combined with a type IV PDE inhibitor, allowing the administration of a lower dosage of both drugs while achieving the same therapeutic benefit. This grant will allow us to explore the incorporation of these potent anti-inflammatory agents into drug-eluting stents. We will develop these stents in collaboration with a third party stent provider," said Jayson Rieger, Ph.D., Principal Investigator and Medicinal Chemistry Project Leader at Adenosine Therapeutics.

Over 800,000 angioplasty procedures are performed annually, and these often include the insertion of stents to limit restenosis. Drug eluting stents, such as the one being investigated in this study, are more effective than bare metal stents, significantly lowering restenosis rates. "If this study shows effectiveness, the implications for patients would be enormous," said Ian J. Sarembock, MD, Professor of Medicine and Interventional Cardiologist at the University of Virginia, who is co-investigator and will perform the in vivo experiments. "If the animal studies are promising, having a drug-eluting stent with this combination of anti-inflammatory drugs could potentially benefit patients undergoing percutaneous coronary interventions."

"If this study shows the results we anticipate, the next step will be to initiate Phase II clinical trials in man with ATL146e which has already been approved for human use," said Robert Capon, Chief Executive Officer. "If successful, this would be an exciting opportunity to provide a new option in the treatment of cardiovascular disease."