Microdosing boosts progress of Speedel's renin inhibitor trial

Speedel, a Swiss pharmaceutical company focused on cardiovascular and metabolic drug development, has announced promising and earlier-than-expected results from its renin inhibitor hypertension drug trials. Progress has been faster than a classical development timeline thanks to the novel microdosing protocols employed by Xceleron, the UK-based analytical contract R&D company working in collaboration with Speedel.

Renin inhibitors are a new class of compounds under development for the treatment of hypertension, chronic renal disease and congestive heart failure. Global antihypertensive drug sales are forecast by Datamonitor to grow from $40.0 billion in 2003 to $50.0 billion by 2009.

Speedel is working on two renin inhibitors SPP630 and SPP635, which are compounds with low nanomolar potency that have been tested in microdosing studies in human volunteers and in preclinical studies with transgenic rats that express the human genes for renin and angiotensinogen. These studies show properties that compare favorably to current inhibitors. Both compounds demonstrate bioavailability of up to 30% in humans and their half-life of more than 30 hours in humans makes them suitable for once-a-day dosing. They also show larger tissue distribution than previous renin inhibitors, indicating potential for end-organ protection.