Cardiovascular Drug Start-Ups
This article was originally published in Start Up
Executive Summary
The cardiovascular drug marketplace has the dubious distinction of being the largest therapeutic category in terms of revenue, unmet need and mortality, while at the same time being the only area experiencing decreasing growth. Revenues will start to plummet starting in 2012 when the world's two largest CV drugs--Lipitor and Plavix--go generic. To help pharmas replace these and other aging drugs in their pipelines, Windhover's Therapeutic Alliances conference presents the "top 10" unpartnered clinical-stage cardiovascular programs.
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BioVascular Inc.
BioVascular is a beneficiary of Merck KGAA's incubator program. launched to encourage start-up companies to develop Merck's shelved technologies. BioVascular gained rights to saratin, a protein originally isolated from leech saliva. Saratin's ability to reduce platelet adhesion and the complications that can arise from it give it a number of potential applications, but BioVascular's initial focus is on vascular surgery, specifically the prevention of intimal hyperplasia that leads to graft failure.
Via Pharmaceuticals Inc.
There's a lot of excitement around the new insights that vulnerable plaque, a certain kind of inflammatory plaque, is the culprit in myocardial infarction, but so far, no one has figured out how to treat it. Thomas Quertermous of Stanford has identified inflammatory pathways that contribute to atherosclerosis and Via Pharmaceuticals was formed to develop a drug, already tested extensively in humans, that emanated from his research program.
AcelleRX Therapeutics Inc.
AcelleRX Therapeutics aims to help people who suffer a myocardial infarction (MI) or chronic heart failure (HF) via a gene or protein capable of recruiting stem cells to help repair the heart. If the science can be successfully commercialized, this spin-out from the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio could have a big impact on a big slice of the market.