Preclinical stage, drug development company Nyrada Inc (ASX: NYR) has been granted the first patent for the company’s Cholesterol-Lowering Programme.
Chief Executive Officer, James Bonnar, said the composition of matter patent provides protection for Nyrada’s intellectual property (IP) relating to its PCSK9 inhibitor technology in the US and forms part of the company’s active IP strategy.
The US is a large market where 19.4 million adults are unable to achieve a healthy cholesterol level, despite taking statin therapy,” Mr Bonnar said.
“Our PCSK9 inhibitor technology is being developed as an oral treatment that can be taken as a monotherapy, or in combination with a statin as a single pill.
“Having patent protection in place significantly strengthens our business development position for this innovative technology. “
Encouragingly, in a recent in vivo efficacy study our lead cholesterol-lowering drug candidate, NYX-PCSK9i, demonstrated a 46% reduction in total cholesterol when given as a monotherapy, and a 65% reduction when dosed in combination with the leading statin drug Lipitor.
“This compares favourably to the reduction achieved using Lipitor alone of 27%. Further exploratory analysis of this study will be reported as soon as the data becomes available,” Mr Bonnar added.
Nyrada is a preclinical stage, drug discovery, and development company, specialising in novel small molecule drugs to treat cardiovascular and neurological diseases. The company has two main programs, each targeting market sectors of significant size and considerable unmet clinical need. These are a cholesterol-lowering drug and a drug to treat brain injury, specifically traumatic brain injury and stroke.