Drug maker Suven Life Sciences said it doesn't see the failure of US-based biotech startup Axovant's Alzheimer's drug in late stage clinical trials to have any "bearing" on its experimental molecule SUVN-502 undergoing proof-of-concept study in US.
"Yes, Axovant results are not a surprise since Glaxo did not want to develop this molecule and they are proven right," Venkat Jasti, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Suven said in a email interview to Moneycontrol.
"It will not have any bearing since the results are the barometer and if they are positive for our molecule then the opportunity is much better and based on our pre-clinical data we are confident that the results will be positive," Jasti said.
Axovant on Tuesday in a statement to a US stock exchange said that its drug called Intepirdine failed to improve cognitive abilities and daily activities of patients in a late-stage trial, dashing its hopes of a blockbuster drug to treat Alzheimer's disease.
Roivant, the parent of Axovant, founded by former hedge fund manager Vivek Ramaswamy paid GlaxoSmithKline USD 5 million up front for intepirdine and built Axovant around it, taking the company to Wall Street in 2015 in what was then biotech’s biggest initial public offering raising USD 315 million.
Shares of Axovant plunged over 70 percent on Nasdaq since the company's announcement.
Both the Suven's SUVN-502 and Axovant's Intepirdine belong to the similar class of drugs called 5-HT6 antagonist. A 5-HT6 antagonist works by boosting acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter needed for normal cognition.
Early this year Danish biotech firm Lundbeck also had to give up on a similar class of molecule in the phase-3 trial as the data didn't show up any meaningful efficacy on patients. The two high-profile failures put the viability of the entire class of 5HT6 antagonist under spotlight.
Suven's SUVN-502 is undergoing proof-of-concept trial in the US, in which the drug will be tested solo and in combination with two other popular Alzheimer’s drugs donepezil HCL (Aricept) and memantine HCL (Namenda) on over 500 patients to establish safety and efficacy of the drug.
Suven is betting big on the drug by spending USD 25 million on the proof-of-concept trial alone. The company plans to out-license the drug for further development and commercialisation on successful completion of the proof-of-concept study.
Read more: Will India’s search for a blockbuster drug end at Suven?
Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, is a chronic, progressive neuro-degenerative disorder that worsens over time. No new chemical entities for Alzheimer's disease have been approved by the FDA since 2003.
Prospective drugs to treat neurological conditions meet with failure rates as high as 95 percent. The scientific understanding of the disease is still evolving and, currently, the drugs available in the market treat symptoms and not the underlying causes.
Also, researchers struggle to design a trial to show efficacy in cognition and the endpoints are not easily measurable unlike other diseases.
Shares of Suven gained 0.46 percent and were trading at Rs 175.15 on BSE at 12.08
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