Rhenovia Pharma, a leading biotech company in biosimulation applied to the discovery of new medications to treat neurodegenerative, neurological and psychiatric diseases, announces today the filing of patents of a new method, a drug candidate, RHEDAR™, and a novel chemical series for treating Huntington’s disease (HD).

RHEDAR is a significant step forward in the use of novel modes of action using Modeling & Simulation (M&S) for cost-effective drug discovery.

The new drug candidate aims to bring into equilibrium the dynamic biochemical and biophysical balances in one of the most affected brain regions in HD, the striatum. RHEDAR is available for out-licensing to the pharma and biotech industry, or for co-development with patient associations and foundations, governmental organizations or investment partners.

"Rhenovia continues to grow from strength to strength. Our latest achievement, RHEDAR, is proof of the relevance of our biosimulation technology that is showing real value as a highly efficient and cost-effective drug discovery method", said Dr. Serge Bischoff, Rhenovia’s president and CEO.

"To my knowledge, this is the first time that a drug candidate has been developed based on the discovery of a novel mode of action using M&S, and we are excited by the opportunities it will offer customers and partners in the pharma and biotech industries."

Biosimulation technology uses original datasets of experimental compounds, abandoned or approved drug candidates to uncover novel biological mechanisms affected by diseases. This enables researchers to re-profile and re-position molecules of interest into new therapeutic areas. M&S is also considered an invaluable instrument for the pharma industry to leverage past investment. The method could also allow biotechnology companies as well as patient associations and foundations to exploit the hundreds or thousands of potentially efficacious drug candidates sitting on shelves.

"By being able to discover new drugs with its innovative approach, Rhenovia has clearly demonstrated that biosimulation is a powerful approach for achieving many things. On top of optimizing drug discovery by validating targets, enhancing the efficacy of existing drug candidates and extending the life cycle of blockbusters via suitable, synergistic combinations or associations, it can also discover new drugs. That is outstanding," said Prof. Michel Baudry, vice-president and CSO at Rhenovia.

According to Dr. Serge Braun, PhD, Scientific Director of the French Association against Myopathies, a patient association dedicated to provide treatment solutions of rare, orphan and neglected diseases:

"this achievement is a promising proof of concept of the biosimulation approach and technologies and opens new opportunities to boost research for rare diseases".

One of the major difficulties in discovering treatments for HD, a rare, progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disease that affects an estimated 3 to 7 per 100,000 people, is the extreme complexity of the underlying biological processes. The disease disrupts these biological processes in ways that give rise to a broad spectrum of often opposing symptoms.

The complexity makes conventional experimental approaches that use animal models risky, unlike the M&S approach that can integrate the complexity and multifactor nature of rare, orphan and neglected diseases.

With its flagship compound RHEDAR, Rhenovia is progressing to the second phase of its company development. Rhenovia Pharma is strengthening its focus on offering services and partnerships to drug discovery organizations (pharma, patient foundations and government agencies) to help these organizations (as well as companies in the fields of nutrition-health and neurotoxicity) to optimize their own drugs and processes.

The Rhenovia Inc. mission is to consolidate, expand and commercialize its drug candidate pipeline.

Rhenovia will be present at the BIO International Convention in Boston (June 18-21, 2012), where executives will present the drug candidate RHEDAR and discuss the progress made in extending the biosimulation platforms RHENOMS™HIPP for cognitive impairment in Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and epilepsy to RHENOMS™STRI for the search of treatments against HD, Parkinson’s disease, neurodevelopmental diseases and other aspects of mental, mood and motivation diseases.

At EuroTox 2012, a Congress of European Societies of Toxicology in Stockholm (June 17-20, 2012), Rhenovia program directors will present applications of biosimulation to protect against neurotoxic agents and its usefulness for regulatory agencies and chemicals industries.