KineMed receives NIH RAID grant to advance FX-5A for heart disease

KineMed Inc. (www.kinemed.com) today announced its successful award of a Rapid Access to Intervention Development (RAID) peer-reviewed grant by the National Institute of Health to advance an HDL mimetic, designated FX-5A, designed to reverse atherosclerosis and heart disease.    

Reverse cholesterol transport is the body's natural process for removing unwanted cholesterol from sites of excessive deposition, including atherosclerotic plaques in arterial walls. Reversing atherosclerosis, the deposit of plaques containing cholesterol and lipoid material in arteries, by increasing the number of high-density lipoprotein, "HDL", particles and increasing reverse cholesterol transport, represents a new therapeutic paradigm. Current low-density lipoprotein, "LDL" cholesterol, lowering therapies are effective to reduce the risk of coronary events by only 30%, whereas studies suggest that for any given level of LDL-cholesterol, cardiovascular risk may be further reduced by an increase in HDL particle levels.

"We are honored to acknowledge this substantial award from the NIH BrIDGs program for assistance with manufacturing, formulation and IND enabling safety studies, to advance our novel ApoA-I mimetic lead compound for the treatment of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases," said Dr. Scott Turner, Executive Vice-President, R&D at KineMed. "Raising HDL particle levels with the goal of increasing reverse cholesterol transport is a prime objective of our approach for further reduction of coronary events in patients at risk. While there are many current therapies in development looking to mimic human HDL, FX-5A has strong potential as a game-changing therapeutic because it is a small synthetic peptide optimized to efflux cholesterol, whereas the majority of other strategies focus on biologics."

"We thank the NIH and are proud to be collaborating on progress towards a life-saving therapy that can potentially bring benefit to millions of Americans threatened by cardiovascular disease. This award highlights KineMed's powerful insights into cholesterol biology and our ability to more rapidly and cost-efficiently advance therapeutics," said David Fineman, CEO & President of KineMed. "That we are able to see the mechanism of action - in action - is key. Through quantitative assays that we have developed and validated in association with thought leaders in this field, we can not only measure cholesterol efflux, but also account for the pluripotency of drug effects, by seeing both on- and off-target effects. These same techniques enable us to subtype the relevant patient populations that can be effectively treated, towards the broader goals of personalized medicine to streamline societal healthcare costs to large populations."