Synergy Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCQB:SGYP.PK), a developer of new drugs to treat gastrointestinal (GI) disorders and diseases, announced today that it has successfully completed preclinical in vitro research demonstrating the inhibition of bile acid uptake by GC-C agonists and that it plans to commence animal studies shortly. Synergy believes this is the first time that GC-C agonists have been shown to potentially lower cholesterol.
“We are pleased to announce expansion of our GC-C agonist technology to lower cholesterol and are planning to develop a drug candidate for this indication”
Synergy has filed a patent application covering the use of proprietary GC-C agonists as drug candidates for prevention and treatment of cholesterol lowering, heart stroke, atherosclerois, diabetes type II, coronary heart disease, gallstones, hypertension, obesity and other cardiovascular diseases. In addition, GC-C agonists may also be used in combination with statins to produce synergistic effect to reduce the dose of statins such as Lipitor®, Zocor® and Crestor® to lower cholesterol.
"We are pleased to announce expansion of our GC-C agonist technology to lower cholesterol and are planning to develop a drug candidate for this indication," said Dr. Gary S. Jacob, CEO of Synergy.
"We believe that the use of GC-C agonists to inhibit reabsorption of bile acids represents a novel avenue to develop a new class of safe and oral drugs for treatment of hypercholesterolemia and other cardiovascular diseases," said Dr. Kunwar Shailubhai, Chief Scientific Officer of Synergy. "It is well documented that dietary or pharmacological manipulation of the enterohepatic circulation of either cholesterol or bile acids can potentially cause marked changes in plasma cholesterol levels."
New research links sphingolipids to heart disease and atherosclerosis