Suven has six drug candidates in pre-clinical stage

Firm to dilute 10%, gets US patent on drug candidate

HYDERABAD: Drug discovery and development company Suven Life Sciences Ltd, is all set to raise about $25 million to fund development of a new chemical entity (NCE) discovered by it for treatment of neuro-degenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, schizophrenia and Huntington’s disease.

It will dilute roughly 10% equity on an expanded capital base to raise the required funds through FCCB, GDR, or even private equity players to take the development of the drug forward, Venkat Jasti, CEO Suven told DNA Money.

Significantly, the company announced on Thursday the US Patent Office has granted a patent on one of its candidates for neuro-degenerative drugs.

It is the first patent for Suven in the US. Of the 29 patents filed by the Hyderabad based company to date, five have been granted so far in various countries.

Suven has six internally-discovered therapeutic drug candidates currently in pre- clinical stage of development targeting conditions such as ADHD, dementia, depression, Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and obesity in addition to developmental candidates in Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. It is developing one of the drugs to treat the central nervous system (CNS), which is still in the pre-clinical stages, jointly with global pharma major Eli Lilly.

Jasti had told DNA Money in October that the company was negotiating with the American major apart from two other global players for taking one of the drug candidates beyond the Phase I stage.

Notably, Suven has also filed its first Investigational New Drug (IND) application with DCGI in India to conduct the clinical Phase-I study on SUVN-502. It is also kicking off Phase I studies in Switzerland on the NCE. However, Jasti would not specify if SUVN 502 was the candidate for which it had won the US patent.

“All going well the volunteer human dosing will start in January and will take six and half months for Phase I to begin which we hope to complete by 2009, he said.

“We hope to have the novel drug in the market by 2012-13,” he said adding currently there is no marketed drug in this class of selective Serotonin receptor affinity compounds.

In the central nervous system (CNS), serotonin is believed to play an important role as a neurotransmitter in the regulation of anger, aggression, body temperature, mood, sleep, vomiting, sexuality and appetite. In addition it is also a peripheral signal mediator.

While the CNS disease market is estimated at over $18 billion annually, the disorders targeted by Suven’s new drug candidate is estimated at between $6-6.5 billion, Jasti said. If successful this could be the first blockbuster drug from India.

Glaxo SmithKline is also is working on the same class of drug and is roughly one and half years ahead of Suven in its development.

“While there are collaborators wanting to tie up for the further development of the drug, which will require up to $400 million, we are OK with taking it up to the Phase I-B stage over the next two-and-a-half years, which will require up to $50 million investment,” Jasti said.

In a bid to fund the development on the drug, Suven is preparing to raise about $25 million over the next three months. “We are currently going through the valuation exercise and hope to raise fund through channels that value intellectual property and future growth potential”, he added. By the end of 2008 we hope to have 10 patents in the bag for CNS based drug candidates across markets, Jasti said.

p_chitti@dnaindia.net