The FINANCIAL — Following the recent commercial introduction of five new drugs to address the medical needs of patients with various diseases, Bayer is now accelerating the development of further five promising drug candidates which are currently undergoing phase I and II clinical studies, according to Bayer AG.
The company announced that it plans to progress these five new highly innovative drug candidates in the areas of oncology, cardiology, and women’s health into phase III clinical studies by 2015.
“Our Pharma research and development has done a tremendous job of bringing five new products to the market offering physicians and patients new treatment alternatives for serious diseases”, said Bayer CEO Dr. Marijn Dekkers. “Following our mission statement ‘Science For A Better Life’, the five chosen further drug candidates all have the potential to impact the way diseases are treated for the benefit of patients,” he added.
“Our research and development activities are strongly focused on areas where treatment options are not available today or where true breakthrough innovations are missing”, said Prof. Andreas Busch, member of the Bayer HealthCare Executive Committee and Head of Global Drug Discovery at Bayer HealthCare. “Our drug development pipeline holds a number of promising candidates which we want to bring to patients who need them urgently”, said Kemal Malik, member of the Bayer HealthCare Executive Committee, Chief Medical Officer and Head of Pharmaceutical Development at Bayer HealthCare. “Furthermore we are continuing to expand the range of indications for all our recently launched products Xarelto, Stivarga, Xofigo, Riociguat as well as Eylea and further refine the profile of these drugs in specific patient populations,” he added.
The five mid-stage candidates have been selected for accelerated development based on positive “proof-of-concept” data from early clinical studies. Three of them are development compounds in the area of cardiology or the cardio-renal syndrome: Finerenone (BAY 94-8862) is a next generation oral, non-steroidal Mineralocorticoid Receptor antagonist which blocks the deleterious effects of aldosterone. Currently available steroidal MR antagonists have proven to be effective in reducing cardiovascular mortality in patients with heart failure but have significant side effects that limit their utilization. Finerenone is currently in clinical Phase IIb development for the treatment of worsening chronic heart failure, as well as diabetic nephropathy, according to Bayer AG.
The second drug candidate in the area of cardiology is an oral soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) stimulator (BAY 1021189). The start of a Phase IIb study in patients with worsening chronic heart failure is expected later this year.
For the cardio-renal syndrome, a Phase IIb program with the investigational new drug Molidustat (BAY 85-3934) is under initiation in patients with anemia associated with chronic kidney disease and/or end-stage renal disease. Molidustat is a novel inhibitor of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) prolyl hydroxylase (PH) which stimulates erythropoietin (EPO) production and the formation of red blood cells. Phase I data have shown that inhibition of HIF-PH by Molidustat results in an increase in endogenous production of EPO.
In oncology, Copanlisib (BAY 80-6946), a novel, oral phosphatidylinositol-3 kinases (PI3K) inhibitor, was selected for accelerated development, according to Bayer AG. Copanlisib demonstrated a broad anti-tumor spectrum in preclinical tumor models and promising early clinical signals in a Phase I study in patients with follicular lymphoma. A Phase II study in patients with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is currently ongoing.
Bayer has also made good progress in the development of new treatment options for patients with gynecological diseases: sPRM (BAY 1002670) is a novel oral progesterone receptor modulator that holds the promises of long-term treatment of patients with symptomatic uterine fibroids. Based on promising early clinical data the initiation of a Phase III study is planned for mid-2014.
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