A year after Concert Pharmaceuticals translated its work using deuterium to amp up the efficacy and stability of drugs into an upsized $84 million IPO, the biotech says it's completed a positive animal study on a new treatment designed to prevent seizures. And now the biotech ($CNCE) wants to complete a preclinical foundation that can be used to support its advance into the clinic.
Their drug is called C-10068, a deuterium-containing sigma-1 agonist that is based on a compound initially developed at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. It has an impact on neurochemical pathways in the central nervous system.
Using a rat model for traumatic brain injury, the investigative team says that the drug spurred a dramatic, dose-dependent reduction of nonconvulsive seizures ranging from 20%, 42% and 70%. The animal model also demonstrated a reduction of the duration of seizures.
It should be noted here that rodent models for CNS have often proven to be unreliable in testing therapies preclinically. But Concert says that after more testing, it will seriously consider adding this treatment to its pipeline of clinical-stage therapies.
"C-10068 represents an opportunity in our R&D pipeline that may be considered for advancement into the clinic in the future based on additional preclinical studies," said Nancy Stuart, the chief operating officer of Concert Pharmaceuticals. "C-10068 is another example of how applying deuterium chemistry can enhance the pharmacologic properties of novel therapeutics for CNS diseases, and builds on our pipeline of drug candidates for a range of CNS diseases including spasticity, narcolepsy, Alzheimer's agitation and major depressive disorder."
The study was published in the Journal of Neurotrauma.
- here's the release
- get the research abstract