Bruce,
Chiroscience and SEPR are, as far as I know, competitors in the r-ketoprofen area. I would guess SEPR has the US patents and Chiro the European, but I don't really know.
I don't actually understand why SEPR is revisiting r-ketoprofen, given that Celebrex/Vioxx must considerably impact its intended market, unless they've discovered something else it's particularly good for (neuropathic pain?).
I've been researching sibutramine (Meridia), which seems to be the prospect they are most excited about. The Knoll patent expires in 2002, but they should get their 5 year extension. I'm not sure whether the extension will impact SEPR developing the active metabolites on their own or not.
Here's an extract from a recent article:
Southwell said he was ''especially excited'' by prospects for the altered
form of Meridia, the obesity drug sold by the Knoll Pharmaceutical unit of
Germany's BASF AG (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: BASF.F).
He said Sepracor's compound, called desmethylsibutramine, inhibits the body
from breaking down two brain messenger chemicals, or neurotransmitters,
norepinephrine and serotonin.
''We think we can develop it not just for obesity but also for depression,
anxiety and incontinence,'' he said, adding that the latter conditions are
regulated by the neurotransmitters.
''Our drug is very different than Meridia and has a potential $10 billion
global market. We plan to develop it ourselves and don't need a partner,''
said Southwell.
Sibutramine was basically developed as an anti-depressive. It's a re-uptake inhibitor (like Prozac), but one that works on all of serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine. For weight loss, it's effects are dose-dependent, and so if SEPR's version keeps the effects and loses the side effects (one of which is increase in pulse and blood pressure in some people), it may be a great weight loss drug.
There's a slide on the SEPR site that distinguishes between
sibutramine and desmethylsibutramine, and then further breaks the latter down into + and - versions. For the activity of the + version, they say "SSRI, NERI, DRI, beta3" but not M3 (which goes only with the - version). I assume serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine reuptake inhibitors. Don't know what M3 is or what the beta3 subtype beta receptor does. The side effects all go with the - version.
Here's some sibutramine pharmacology:
rxlist.com
Peter |
