Advertisement
"This study provides, for the first time, strong prospective evidence thattight glucose monitoring and control can dramatically benefit certainidentifiable patients with diabetes," said Noah Berkowitz, M.D., Ph.D.,President and Chief Executive Officer of Synvista. "While it is widelyaccepted that tight glycemic control can limit microvascular disease likeretinopathy in patients with diabetes, the potential benefits of such controlon macrovascular disease have been less clear. This large, prospectiveevaluation of Hp typing, for which Synvista is developing a clinicaldiagnostic test, demonstrates how 40% of diabetic patients can achievesignificant cardiovascular benefit from tight glycemic control. We believe thefindings of this study further validate our approach to target the treatmentof heart disease in diabetic patients by using Hp testing for patient riskstratification, as we advance our lead product candidates, ALT-2074 andalagebrium, through clinical development."
Advertisement
In a presentation titled "Tight Diabetic Glycemic Control Reduces the Riskof Cardiovascular Disease Only in Individuals With the Hp2-2 Genotype," ShanyBlum, M.D., of the Rappaport Institute of the Technion University, Haifa,Israel, reported the results of a prospective population-based study of morethan 3,000 individuals age 55 or older with diabetes mellitus, who were testedfor Hp type and followed for two years in a registry. It was observed thatHp2-2 was associated with a highly significant increase in incidence of non-fatal-myocardial infarction, stroke and cardiovascular death and that onlypatients with the Hp2-2 genotype (as compared to patients with genotypes Hp1-2or Hp1-1) were shown to have a significant decrease in major cardiovascularevents if their HbA1c was maintained below 7.0, the generally recommendedtarget for tight glycemic control.
The study concluded that to optimize healthcare resource utilization,cardiovascular risk factor modification in individuals with diabetes mellitusshould be focused on those patients exhibiting the Hp2-2 genotype (40% of thepopulation). Synvista is developing a diagnostic kit for the detection of Hptype. Until that kit has completed development and becomes available formarketing, physicians or patients may order Hp genotyping from ARUPLaboratories, a Synvista licensee in Salt Lake City, Utah.
About Synvista Therapeutics
Synvista Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company developing smallmolecule drugs to treat and prevent cardiovascular disease and to treatnephropathy in people with diabetes. The Company has identified severalproduct candidates that it believes represent novel approaches to some of thelargest pharmaceutical markets. The Company's portfolio includes orallybioavailable, organoselenium mimics of glutathione peroxidase. These compoundsmetabolize lipid peroxides and have the potential to limit myocardial damagesubsequent to a myocardial infarction. The Company is developing a clinicaldiagnostic test, based on cardiovascular risk assessment, using Haptoglobincharacterization, to identify patients at high risk for cardiovascularcomplications of diabetes.
Synvista Therapeutics also is developing alagebrium, a proposed breaker ofAGEs for the treatment of diastolic heart failure. This disease represents arapidly growing market of unmet medical need, particularly common amongdiabetic patients. Alagebrium has demonstrated relevant clin
