Acadesine

From WikiCover

On August 20, 2007, PeriCor Therapeutics announced that its licensing agreement for acadesine with Schering-Plough has become effective, granting Schering-Plough exclusive worldwide rights for the development and commercialization of PeriCor's lead compound, acadesine.

Acadesine is currently under evaluation in Phase III clinical development as an intravenous infusion for the prevention of adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular outcomes that occur as complications associated with ischemia-reperfusion injury in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery.

Previous clinical experience with acadesine in placebo-controlled studies in CABG surgery suggests that acadesine may have unique cardioprotective activity. Last year, a landmark study of this novel cardioprotective agent demonstrated the drug's ability to prolong long-term survival in those patients who suffer heart attacks following heart bypass surgery.

Adenosine regulation by acadesine provides highly site- and event-specific amplification of adenosine-mediated cardioprotection while exhibiting a remarkable safety profile in more than 2,000 patients who have received the drug in controlled clinical trials. Adenosine targets a broad-spectrum of the pathophysiology of ischemia/reperfusion injury that involves an even broader range of chemical mediators and cell types than was recognized only ten years ago. Adenosine has been shown to be a powerful mediator of ischemic preconditioning, the most potent approach to reducing infarct size in ischemia/reperfusion injury in animal studies.