Stealth Peptides introduces Bendavia clinical candidate at AHA Scientific Sessions

Stealth Peptides, a privately held biopharmaceutical company developing innovative mitochondrial therapies for diseases with significant unmet medical needs, introduced its lead clinical candidate, Bendavia™, a novel compound that targets the mitochondrion, at the 2010 American Heart Association's (AHA) Scientific Sessions, Resuscitation Science Symposium. Dr. Hazel Szeto, Stealth's founder, presented an overview of Bendavia and its potential for treating cardio-renal diseases and critical care conditions including severe burn and muscle trauma during the AHA's Scientific Sessions.

The AHA is a US non-profit organization focusing on cardiac care worldwide with a goal of reducing morbidity and mortality caused by cardiovascular diseases. The AHA's annual meeting was held November 13th through 17th, in Chicago, Illinois, and centered around seven core cardiovascular areas, which explored the evolution and recent trends of scientific investigation and clinical practice. An estimated 25,000 attendees joined the 2010 AHA's Scientific Sessions.

The initial clinical program for Bendavia is the treatment of ischemia reperfusion injury, a common complication of interventional procedures for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and coronary bypass surgery. Standard animal models for AMI demonstrate Bendavia's beneficial myocardial effects and confirm the significance of its novel target, the mitochondrion, for ischemia reperfusion injury.

Contrary to prior therapeutic strategies for ischemia reperfusion injury and AMI that focused on uni-targeted pathways, Bendavia and its mitochondrial directed actions address the more complicated, multifactorial nature of diseases. Specifically, Bendavia has been shown to improve electron transport efficiency, maintain mitochondrial respiration and adenosine triphosphate levels and prevent mitochondrial swelling and depolarization. Bendavia also appears to be a strong neurologic protectant, which holds promise as a treatment for stroke and cardiac arrest patients.

Stealth's CEO, Travis Wilson, remarked "Stealth is enthusiastic about the recognition of Bendavia as a novel candidate for cardiovascular diseases. Based on the successful conclusion of our Phase I clinical trial and encouraging preclinical data for several acute care conditions, we feel that Bendavia has the potential to be a paradigm shifting therapy for mitochondrial dysfunction, which underlies many common diseases including cardio-renal, neurologic and metabolic disorders."

Stealth is currently initiating a multinational Phase II clinical study with Bendavia focused on ischemia reperfusion injury for patients experiencing acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Stealth's Phase II clinical trial is termed EMBRACE-STEMI™ for the Evaluation of the Myocardial effects of Bendavia for reducing Reperfusion injury in patients with Acute Coronary Events.