Canada's Topigen acquires US rights to respiratory drug
Topigen Pharmaceuticals, a privately-held Canadian biopharmaceutical company specialising in respiratory disorders, has acquired North American rights, with an option for worldwide rights, to TPI 1020 (formerly NCX-1020), a Phase IIa compound from French company NicOx, being developed for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and other respiratory disorders.
Topigen Pharmaceuticals, a privately-held Canadian biopharmaceutical company specialising in respiratory disorders, has acquired North American rights, with an option for worldwide rights, to TPI 1020 (formerly NCX-1020), a Phase IIa compound from French company NicOx, being developed for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and other respiratory disorders.
COPD is the fourth-leading cause of death in the US and is projected to become the third-leading by 2020. Current treatments improve the quality of life and provide symptomatic relief in some patients, but there are no drugs available that can slow the progressive decline in lung function caused by the disease.
Dr Paul Wotton, president and ceo of Topigen said: 'We are building a biopharmaceutical company with a pipeline of novel respiratory disease products that can be optimised using our proprietary discovery capabilities. The addition of TPI 1020 to our existing portfolio of both clinical and pre-clinical candidates brings Topigen another Phase II compound. In 2006 we expect to initiate a 14-day Phase IIa trial of TPI 1020 in man.'
TPI 1020 - a novel, proprietary nitric oxide-donating derivative of budesonide widely prescribed inhaled corticosteroid for treating respiratory diseases - has been shown to protect against broncho-constriction and to inhibit infiltration and subsequent activation of neutrophils (the immune cells implicated in COPD) in the lungs.