Stockholm, Sweden – Medivir AB (OMX:MVIR) announced that MIV-247 has been selected as a candidate drug (CD) from its cathepsin S inhibitor project for the treatment of neuropathic pain, and is entering non-clinical development.
Approximately 25 million patients across the US, Europe and Japan suffer from neuropathic pain, which includes diabetic neuropathy, post-herpetic neuralgia and neuropathic low-back pain. Currently marketed drugs have limited efficacy and poor side-effect profiles. Patients with neuropathic pain are therefore in great need of new and efficacious therapies that can deliver sustainable pain relief with improved tolerance and adverse event profiles.
MIV-247 is a potent and highly selective inhibitor of cathepsin S. Cathepsin S has been shown to be an enzyme that is important for the maintenance of the neuropathic pain state, through its action in releasing fractalkine (a pro-inflammatory protein) in areas of the spinal cord important for pain sensation. Compounds from Medivir’s cathepsin S inhibitor project, including MIV-247, have shown good efficacy in experimental models of neuropathic pain, with no evidence of tolerance induction in longer-term studies.
“We are very excited by the preclinical profile of MIV-247, which has shown a high level of activity in preclinical models of neuropathic pain, attractive pharmacokinetic properties, and an excellent non-clinical safety profile. Patients with neuropathic pain are in urgent need of new treatment options to manage their disease, and we look forward to the further development of this compound as an exciting new approach for this condition” said Richard Bethell, EVP Discovery Research, Medivir AB.
For more information please contact:
Rein Piir, EVP Corporate Affairs & IR
Mobile +46 708 537 292
About Medivir
Medivir is an emerging research-based pharmaceutical company focused on infectious diseases. Medivir has world class expertise in polymerase and protease drug targets and drug development which has resulted in a strong infectious disease R&D portfolio. The Company’s key pipeline asset is simeprevir, a novel protease inhibitor for the treatment of hepatitis C that is being developed in collaboration with Janssen R&D Ireland. The company is also working with research and development in other areas, such as bone disorders and neuropathic pain.
Medivir has also a broad product portfolio with prescription pharmaceuticals in the Nordics.
For more information about Medivir AB, please visit the Company’s website: www.medivir.com
Medivir is a collaborative and agile pharmaceutical company with an R&D focus on infectious diseases and a leading position in hepatitis C. We are passionate and uncompromising in our mission to develop and commercialize innovative pharmaceuticals that improve people’s lives.