Atrial Fibrillation Agents: Better Drugs For The Arrhythmic Heart
This article was originally published in Start Up
Executive Summary
Improvements in targeting the sources of aberrant cardiac rhythms may open the heart up to new therapies. In this issue, we profile four start-ups focused on developing treatments for AF and other arrhythimas: Acesion Pharma, ChanRx, Milestone Pharmaceuticals and Serodus.
You may also be interested in...
Serodus AS
The project that prompted the formation of Serodus AS is no longer the driving force of this start-up company. But the founding research did spark a deal that brought the firm a similar but more advanced asset, now one of three the firm is developing for cardiovascular indications ranging from high systolic blood pressure to atrial fibrillation to heart failure. Serodus in-licensed its lead candidate, a peptide classified as an opioid receptor agonist from Zealand Pharma, which took the compound through several clinical trials in both acute and chronic heart failure. Serodus thinks it could potentially develop a 5-HT-4 receptor antagonist it calls SER102 for atrial fibrillation that occurs in connection with surgery.
ChanRx Corp.
Like many a start-up before it, ChanRx Corp. aims to repurpose a compound discovered by others for a new use. Unlike most repurposing efforts, however, this compound, called vanoxerine, has never actually been approved as a drug. Although it has thrice been taken into Phase I trials that yielded acceptable safety data, the compound showed no efficacy for treatment of Parkinson’s disease, depression or cocaine addiction. Noting that vanoxerine could influence muscle that beats rapidly, the start-up is developing it as an oral treatment for atrial fibrillation.
Acesion Pharma APS
Denmark’s Acesion Pharma AS’ co-founders Ulrik Sørensen, now serving as CEO, and Morten Grunnet, the start-up’s CSO, both worked for over a decade at NeuroSearch AS on a target and compounds that could yield a new treatment for AF. The target is a type of calcium-activated potassium channel classified as the SK channel. Although many kinds of ion channels have been pursued as targets of AF drugs, this particular channel is novel as a drug target and no drugs have been developed against it.