Date: 2015-01-09
Type of information: Licensing agreement
Compound: eFlow® Technology nebulizer
Company: Polyphor (Switzerland) PARI Pharma (Germany)
Therapeutic area: Rare diseases - Genetic diseases - Lung diseases
Type agreement: licensing
Action mechanism: device/protease inhibitor. The eFlow® nebulizer developed by PARI is a device for the treatment of respiratory diseases via aerosol inhalation. Throughout its development, particular care was taken to consider patients\' needs for efficient, safe, and above all fast inhalation treatment. With the eFlow® device, medications can be delivered to the deep lung compartments quickly and efficiently. Consequently, the eFlow® nebulizer is already widely used in the CF patient community for several medications. It will be used for the administration of Polyphor\'s POL6014, a selective inhibitor of neutrophil elastase. The human neutrophil elastase enzyme is present in the healthy lung where it is inhibited by natural protease inhibitors, in particular Alpha-1 Antitrypsin. In AAT deficient patients this natural inhibitor is produced in insufficient quantities due to a genetic defect, which results in high levels of uninhibited elastase. This often leads to severe and fatal lung deterioration. There are several thousand diagnosed patients, mainly in Europe and the US; however, the number of undiagnosed patients is considered to be much higher.
Disease:
Details: * On January 9, 2015, Polyphor, a privately held pharmaceutical company specialized in the discovery and development of macrocycle drugs, announced the signing of a licensing agreement with PARI Pharma, Starnberg, Germany, to use the eFlow® Technology nebulizer for the administration of POL6014, a selective inhibitor of neutrophil elastase. POL6014 is a synthetic macrocycle drug based on Polyphor\'s proprietary drug discovery platform. It is being developed for the treatment of rare lung diseases such as Alpha-1 Antitrypsin (AAT) Deficiency and Cystic Fibrosis (CF). POL6014 has been shown to be efficacious in several animal models of lung diseases and was well tolerated. In feasibility studies using the eFlow® nebulizer, POL6014 has shown excellent suitability for inhalation. The start of Phase I clinical studies is planned in 2015.
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