Ark’s cardiac drug restores heart function following heart attack

This was achieved during the final comparative gene selection work carried out by Ark’s scientists in Finland in a second preclinical therapeutic proof-of-principle study.

EG011, containing shortform vascular endothelial growth factor D, induced a four-fold increase in capillaries, which were hemodynamically functional at 21 days with no regression. The amount of blood pumped from the ventricle where the heart attack occurred was restored from 60% to 90% of the level before the heart attack occurred, a highly significant result, the company said. EG011 appeared well tolerated with no differences in serious adverse events observed between active and control groups in the study.

Nigel Parker, CEO of Ark, said: “Our first work was in healthy hearts and we have now taken that work further in a heart attack model representative of the disease and completed the gene comparisons. We are now moving to final clone selection and GMP production, so we can undertake the final toxicology work ahead of entering Phase I human studies.”