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news.Cardiovascular drugs developer Medicure has acquired the exclusive worldwide licensing rights from the University of Manitoba and University of Ottawa Heart Institute for a technology platform focused on novel lipid lowering therapeutics for cardiovascular diseases.
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The treatment approach, discovered by scientists at the University of Manitoba and the University of Ottawa, reduces cholesterol and triglycerides by acting on newly discovered targets in the liver’s mechanism for the production and removal of very low density lipoproteins (VLDL), the main triglyceride carrier in the blood.
While cholesterol-lowering therapy has traditionally focused primarily on reducing low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, researchers have found that VLDL and other related lipoproteins appear to be extensively involved in developing heart disease. This is because VLDL, once released into the blood, is converted to low density lipoprotein (LDL) which is the main cholesterol carrier.
As a result, the primary treatment guidelines set by the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) national cholesterol education program (NCEP) have recently placed new emphasis on these non-HDL lipoproteins as a target of treatment in addition to management of LDL cholesterol.
“This technology platform represents an exciting new treatment approach to controlling cholesterol and compliments our pipeline of cardiovascular drugs currently under development,” stated Dr Albert Friesen, Medicure’s president and CEO. “This novel discovery could result in a potential new class of cholesterol lowering drugs.”
Cholesterol lowering therapies currently represent the world’s largest pharmaceutical market, with revenues of $22 billion worldwide in 2002.