From mapping the heart to punching through blocked arteries, San Diego companies are working to combat cardiac disease. These companies are an example of technology working to make a difference.
TargeGen is developing new chemical entities to work in biochemical processes that can grow and repair vascular tissue. The small molecule inhibitors suppress vascular permeability associated with heart attacks; the innovation could lead to new treatments. In vivo testing has been promising; the company is filing patents and developing plans for human testing. www.targegen.com.
Maxia Pharmaceuticals is in preclinical development on a class of endothelin inhibitors that function similarly to naturally occurring compounds — such as those in red wine — known to reduce the incidence of heart disease. Maxia’s new inhibitors are expected to help in prevention and treatment of chronic heart disease, including post heart attack care. This month, Palo Alto-based Incyte Genomics should complete its acquisition, announced in November, of the small molecule drug discovery company for $28.3 million in cash and up to $14 million in milestone payments. www.maxia.com.
Ligand Pharmaceuticals is in Phase I clinical studies with two pharmaceutical corporate partners on three compounds aimed at treating dyslipidemia, a cholesterol disorder. One study is being done in partnership with Glaxo Wellcome and the other two with Lilly. The biotech’s drug development and discovery stem from its gene transcription technology. www.ligand.com.
IntraLuminal Therapeutics Inc. has created a wire system with optic guidance that allows medical professionals to more safely punch through a completely blocked artery. The Safe-Steer System and its accessories have been approved in the United States. The company is conducting two clinical trials on systems that allow doctors to use infrared light to navigate through the blocks without puncturing the artery. www.intraluminal.com.
Instromedix produces medical devices to monitor and record heart arrhythmia. Its CarryAll line of products enable patients with pacemakers to transmit electrocardiograms via telephone to receiving equipment. The HeartCard cardiac event recorder is about the size of a credit card and is used only when a patient feels symptoms. In 2002, Instromedix introduced its latest product, the King of Hearts Express AF Recorder, which automatically records any abnormal heart rate or trial fibrillation. www.instromedix.com.
Innercool Therapies has developed an endovascular technology called Celsius Control System for heart attack patients that cools the body, rapidly induces hypothermia and maintains and helps preserve heart tissue. The Food and Drug Administration has given the system the go ahead. www.innercool.com.
Idun Pharmaceuticals is in preclinical development of small molecule drugs that reduce the damage caused by a heart attack. The drugs block or delay caspase, an enzyme that triggers cell death. The drugs can help reduce the overall damage to patients who come to the hospital with a heart attack. www.idun.com.
Digital Gene Technologies collaborates with academic and commercial partners to provide them with access to its patented genomics technology expression profiling system to determine what genes are active within a particular cell type. The technology may help develop drugs that can treat atherosclerosis, the accumulation of plaque (cholesterol, fat, and calcium) along the inner wall of an artery or vessel that transports blood from the heart. www.dgt.com.
Digirad has supplanted 40-year-old vacuum tube technology in bringing to market solid-state nuclear cardiology imagery with a patented, gamma radiation detection process. As part of the procedure, Digirad uses a rotating chair that allows for a patient to be scanned without having to lie down inside a hospital tunnel-type enclosure. Together the units offer speed, compactness and mobility, changing what for many patients has been an anxious experience in claustrophobia. The system is portable enough to fit in a medical examination room. www.digirad.com.
CryoCor Inc. is working to use cryogenic (freezing) technology to cure irregular heart rhythms. Ablation creates lesions in the heart with catheters to prevent electrical disturbances that cause arrhythmias. CryoCor’s technology may offer the cardiac electrophysiologist a new minimally invasive catheter-based product to treat patients with atrial fibrillation and eventually treat patients with other cardiac arrhythmias. The system is being used in Europe and clinical trials have started in the United States. www.cryocor.com.
Corvas International Inc. has developed a drug, rNAPc2, to stop blood clotting inside organs before it starts. Corvas discovered it in a blood-feeding hookworm parasite. In Phase II studies, it is intended to treat blood clots in the heart without significantly affecting the necessary blood clotting that stops uncontrolled bleeding from cuts or bruises. Unlike aspirin, it blocks the first step in the formation of a blood clot. www.corvas.com.
Biosite Inc. has two cardiac care products. Its first, the handheld Triage Cardiac Panel, was introduced in 1998. The unit tests a patient’s blood for acute myocardial infarction (a heart attack) offering results within 15 minutes. Biosite’s second product is Triage BNP, introduced in Europe in 1999 and FDA cleared for the United States in November 2000. It is the first blood test to aid in diagnosis of congestive heart failure. www.biosite.com.
In June 2002, Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp. secured FDA approval to market Imagent, an imaging agent used with ultrasound to better distinguish between normal and abnormal heart structures and functions. Alliance is selling the technology to Photogen Technologies Inc. in Pennsylvania. Alliance remains in Phase III clinical trials with its Oxygent, a blood substitute that would reduce or eliminate the need for donor blood during general surgery. www.allp.com.
