Savient seeks European partner for first breakthrough gout treatment in 40 years

Savient Pharmaceuticals, a small New Jersey, USA-based company developing what it claims is "the first truly innovative treatment for tophacious gout to emerge in 40 years," is looking for a partner to market the product in Europe. Puricase (PEG-uricase), currently in Phase III clinical trials, is a polyethylene-glycolated recombinant porcine uricase which breaks down and eliminates uric acid, successfully reducing gouty tophi (nodular masses of uric acid crystals) in the tissues; these cause painful flares and can result in joint deformity.

The drug is administered by two-hour intravenous infusions every two or four weeks and would probably be indicated initially for patients with hyperuricaemia and severe tophacious gout, resistant to or intolerant of conventional therapy. Puricase's technology was originally developed by researchers at Duke University in North Carolina and the PEGylation technology by California-based company Mountain View Pharmaceuticals, USA. Savient has acquired world rights.

In the USA, around three to five million people suffer from gout, of whom some two million are treated with allopurinol. Approximately a quarter of all gout sufferers - about half a million Americans - develop tophi and gout flares despite therapy.