Date: 2014-03-27
Type of information: R&D agreement
Compound: compounds designed to remove radioactive/toxic metal contaminants from the body
Company: Medesis Pharma (France - Canada) CEA (France)
Therapeutic area: Technology - Services
Type agreement: R&D
Action mechanism:
Disease:
Details: * On March 27, 2014, Medesis Pharma, a biopharmaceutical company represented in France and Canada, developing of innovative nanotechnology for the decorporation of toxic metals and the active transport of metal ions, has signed a collaboration agreement with the French Commission for Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies (Commissariat à l\'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives, CEA ) on the development of compounds designed to remove radioactive/toxic metal contaminants from the body. Medesis Pharma will operate an exclusive license to a joint patent application filed on February 19, 2014. The method relies on the distribution of chelators throughout the body using the Aonys® vector.
The Medesis-owned nanotechnology Aonys® can carry water-soluble compounds, such as metal ions and chelating agents. As a therapeutic vector with proven safety, Aonys® is administered orally, crosses the mucosa, joins the lymphatic circulation and penetrates in the cells of the body. The first product (for the decorporation of plutonium, americium and curium) was fully validated in November 2013. It should be registered by 2016 and marketed by 2017. Two other products (for the decorporation of cesium and uranium, respectively) will be tested in 2014 and are due to be commercialized in 2018.
Medesis Pharma is targeting the defense markets and the civil nuclear industry (especially governmental stocks of decorporation products for civil protection in the vicinity of nuclear power plants). At present, there are no appropriate marketed products to use on a broad population for decorporation of plutonium and cesium, and there is no treatment for the decorporation of uranium.
The patent application covers decorporation process after nuclear contamination, jointly developed by Medesis Pharma and CEA, and all ways in which the technology can be used to remove metals from the body. Products for the following situations are already being studied:
- accidental or occupational metal poisoning (by lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, manganese, etc.).
- metal overload diseases: Wilson\'s disease (copper); hemochromatosis, neurodegeneration hereditary ferritinopathies and aceruloplasminemia (iron); acquired hepatocerebral degeneration syndrome (manganese)
- administration of radionuclides used in medical imaging (technetium complexes in scintigraphy and gadolinium complexes in MRI).
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