In 2010, after more than 10 years of basic research, Dr. Peter W. Schiller, a world-renowned peptide chemist and Director of the Chemical Biology and Peptide research unit at the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM), and his international collaborators were the listed inventors on two U.S. patents awarded to the institute and covering different uses of a unique class of peptide compounds initially synthesized in Dr. Schiller's laboratory at the IRCM.
A total of five U.S. patents have been awarded to the IRCM to date involving these new peptide compounds. Patent applications have also been filed in many other countries, including Canada, Europe, Japan, India, Australia, and China. The IRCM co-owns these patent families with Cornell University, located in New York state.
Stealth Peptides International Inc. (Stealth), a privately held biopharmaceutical company developing innovative therapies, has exclusively licensed commercial rights to the compounds and their various applications. Stealth plans to develop new treatments for metabolic, ophthalmologic, neurologic and cardio-renal diseases using these and other compounds.
Stealth's lead clinical candidate is BendaviaTM, a novel compound from this class of peptides that targets cell mitochondria to treat several acute and chronic diseases.
The first clinical program for Bendavia is for the treatment of ischemia reperfusion injury, a common complication of interventional procedures for acute myocardial infarction, a leading cause of death worldwide, as reported by the World Health Organization. An Investigational New Drug application for Bendavia was filed with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Phase I clinical trials began in May 2010. The initial U.S. Phase I clinical trial was designed to evaluate the clinical safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of Bendavia in healthy volunteers. In September 2010, Stealth's U.S. affiliate announced the completion of the U.S. Phase I study. The preliminary results from this clinical trial demonstrated that Bendavia appeared to be well tolerated at the doses evaluated, with no serious adverse events reported. A Phase II clinical trial has already begun in several countries.
In the "Top Ten"
Windhover, a company owned by Elsevier that plays a major role in the production of health industry analyses, chose Bendavia as one of the "Top 10" projects to watch for in 2011 in the development of therapies for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.
About Dr. Peter W. Schiller
Dr. Peter W. Schiller is the director of the chemical biology and peptide research unit and an IRCM research professor. He is also a full research professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the Université de Montréal and an adjunct professor at the Center for Drug Discovery, Bouvé College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston. Dr. Schiller holds the Canadian Pacific Chair on pain.
Dr. Schiller is pursuing interdisciplinary research in the areas of the medicinal chemistry and molecular pharmacology of peptide hormones and neurotransmitters. Major peptides studied in recent years include opioid and antioxidant peptides.
Substantial progress has been made in developing selective antagonists for various opioid receptors and new peptide analogs and peptidomimetics with a μ agonist / δ antagonist opioid profile. These potent analgesics have great potential for the treatment of chronic pain, as they produce no physical dependence and less tolerance than morphine. Research scientists in this unit have also developed an analgesic that is 3,000 times more potent than morphine, but does not produce respiratory depression when peripherally administered. The compound could be used as a general spinal analgesic and in particular as an obstetric analgesic, since it does not cross the placental barrier. The antioxidant peptides developed in collaboration with Dr. Hazel Szeto (SS–peptides) act at the mitochondrial level and hold great promise for the treatment of various diseases associated with oxidative stress, such as neurodegenerative conditions and the myocardial reperfusion syndrome.
About the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM)
Founded in 1967, the IRCM (http://www.ircm.qc.ca) is currently comprised of 35 research units in various fields, namely immunity and viral infections, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, cancer, neurobiology and development, systems biology and medicinal chemistry. It also houses three specialized research clinics, seven core facilities and three research platforms with state-of-the-art equipment. The IRCM employs 425 people and is an independent institution affiliated with the Université de Montréal. The IRCM clinic is associated to the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM). The IRCM also maintains a long-standing association with McGill University.