VistaGen Therapeutics is
keenly aware that despite decades of well-intentioned awareness and prevention
campaigns, heart disease is still the leading cause of death for both men and
women. The disease kills more than 600,000 Americans each year. According to
the Center for Disease Control, approximately 49 percent of Americans have at
least one of the three risk factors for heart disease – these being high blood
pressure, high LDL cholesterol, and smoking. Despite researcher insights
concluding that an overwhelming majority of heart disease is the result of poor
lifestyle choices, scientists understand the statistics are dynamic in nature
and must be constantly monitored.
VistaGen is a life sciences
company that innovatively leverages its Human Clinical Trials in a Test Tube™
technology platform to provide clinically relevant predictions of potential
toxicity of promising new drug candidates. Cardiovascular care is one of
VistaGen’s particular areas of focus.
Unexpected safety concerns
are pointed to as the reason why about one-third of all potential new drug
candidates fail in preclinical or clinical development. It is believed that
many lives could have been saved if it were not for promising cardiovascular
drugs being discontinued because of late-stage failure. Using human heart cells
derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), VistaGen’s technology is
designed to address potential toxicity of new cardiovascular drug candidates
long before they are ever tested in humans.
CardioSafe 3D™, the
company’s novel three-dimensional (3D) bioassay system, was developed to
identify safer drug rescue variants with reduced heart safety concerns, which
can be missed in animal models or in vitro cell culture testing currently used
by biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
VistaGen’s plan is to
combine CardioSafe 3D™ with modern medicinal chemistry to build a pipeline of
safer chemical variants (Drug Rescue Variants™) of once-promising drug
candidates that initially were developed by biotechnology and pharmaceutical
companies, but were abandoned later due to the concerns mentioned earlier.
Other notable work involves AV-101, the company’s lead small molecule drug
candidate. The drug has successfully completed Phase I development in the U.S.
for treatment of neuropathic pain, a serious and chronic condition causing pain
after an injury or disease of the peripheral or central nervous system.
Neuropathic pain affects millions of people worldwide. VSTA believes its Phase
1 safety program will enable Phase 2 development of AV-101 for neuropathic
pain, depression, and potentially other neurological conditions. To date,
VistaGen has been awarded over $8.8 million from the NIH for development of
AV-101.
The core goal is to license
or sell Drug Rescue Variants to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies for
further development and commercialization. VistaGen believes its strategy has the
potential to substantially reduce drug development costs and produce effective
and safer drugs, which would inherently help save human lives.
For more information visit
www.vistagen.com
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