Sirtris Announces First U.S. Patent Issued On Class of SIRT1 Activators; Patent Covers First NCE to Enter Human Clinical Trials
March 19 2008 - 7:00AM
Business Wire
Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRT), a biopharmaceutical
company focused on discovering and developing small molecule drugs
to treat diseases of aging such as Type 2 Diabetes, announced today
that the United States Patent Office issued to Sirtris the first
patent covering a broad class of compounds that activate the enzyme
SIRT1. Several Sirtris compounds�or new chemical entities
(NCEs)�from this class lower glucose and improve insulin
sensitivity in preclinical models of Type 2 Diabetes. The patent
covers the first NCE that Sirtris plans to take into a human
clinical safety trial in the first half of 2008. �Just five months
ago in the publication Nature, we reported the identification of
new chemical entities that lower glucose and improve insulin
sensitivity in preclinical models that the FDA�in recent draft
guidance�recommended for the development of Type 2 Diabetes drugs,�
says Christoph Westphal, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and
Vice Chair of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals. �We are very pleased to have
the first patent covering a class of compounds that have the
potential to be a frontline therapy for Type 2 Diabetes.� �Sirtris
has a strong intellectual property program with over 180 patent
applications for broad coverage of sirtuin activators, including
composition of matter, formulations, and methods of treatment
claims,� says Karl Normington, Ph.D., Senior Director of
Intellectual Property at Sirtris Pharmaceuticals. �This is the
first patent issued by the U.S. Patent Office covering a class of
compounds known to activate SIRT1.� In 2006, consecutive papers in
the journals Cell and Nature by Sirtris scientists and Sirtris
co-founder David Sinclair, Ph.D. of Harvard Medical School, showed
that resveratrol, a SIRT1 activator found in red wine, could reduce
the impact of a high fat diet, increase stamina two fold and
significantly extend lifespan of mice. However, it is estimated
that a person would need to drink roughly 1000 bottles of red wine
per day to obtain the equivalent dose of resveratrol used in these
studies. Sirtris has developed SIRT1 activating molecules that are
chemically distinct from, and up to 1000 times more potent in
in-vitro studies than resveratrol. The sirtuins are a family of
seven enzymes that help regulate the body's natural defense against
disease. In preclinical research, members of the sirtuin family
have been shown to have protective effects against various diseases
such as Type 2 Diabetes, metabolic diseases, cardiovascular
disease, neurodegeneration, inflammation and cancer. Future sirtuin
therapeutics may have the potential to treat diseases of aging in a
new way. About Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Sirtris Pharmaceuticals is a
biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing
proprietary, orally available, small molecule drugs with the
potential to treat diseases associated with aging, including
metabolic diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes. Our drug candidates are
designed to mimic certain beneficial health effects of calorie
restriction, without requiring a change in eating habits, by
activation of sirtuins, a recently discovered class of enzymes that
the Company believes control the aging process. The Company's
headquarters are in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This press release
contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements
include, but are not limited to, the potential therapeutic effects
of sirtuins and SIRT1 activators, including novel chemical entities
and SRT501, for diseases of aging, such as Type 2 Diabetes; the
progress and potential results of preclinical and clinical studies
of SIRT1 activators; the success of SIRT1 activators as therapies
for diseases, such as Type 2 Diabetes; and the potential of sirtuin
modulators to receive regulatory approval. These forward-looking
statements about future expectations, plans and prospects of
Sirtris Pharmaceuticals involve significant risks, uncertainties
and assumptions, including risks related to the lack of results
that would provide a basis for predicting whether any of the
Company's product candidates will be safe or effective, or receive
regulatory approval, the possibility that results of pre-clinical
studies are not necessarily predictive of clinical trial results,
the Company's potential inability to initiate and complete
pre-clinical studies and clinical trials for its product
candidates, the fact that none of the Company's product candidates
has received regulatory approvals, the potential inability of the
Company to gain market acceptance of the Company's product
candidates, and those other risks factors that can be found in the
Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Actual results may differ materially from those Sirtris
Pharmaceuticals contemplated by these forward-looking statements.
Sirtris Pharmaceuticals does not undertake to update any of these
forward-looking statements to reflect a change in its views or
events or circumstances that occur after the date of this release.
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