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Lipigon and 5Prime Sciences enter partnership to optimize coming clinical trials
This is an English translation of the Swedish original. In case of discrepancies, the Swedish original shall prevail.
Lipigon Pharmaceuticals AB ("Lipigon"), developer of therapeutics for lipid-related diseases, today announced a partnership with 5Prime Sciences ("5Prime") to accelerate the development of the lipid-lowering drug candidate Lipisense for upcoming clinical trials. By utilizing advanced genetic tools and large-scale collections of patient cohorts, providing billions of data points, 5Prime will, among other things, investigate which patient groups will benefit the most from ANGPTL4 inhibition. By partnering, 5Prime will become Lipigon's in-house human genetics team.
Lipisense is a drug candidate for the treatment of diseases with abnormal levels of lipids in the blood, primarily triglycerides, and a first-in-class treatment with a unique mechanism of action. Elevated triglycerides are a risk factor present in several diseases and inhibition of ANGPTL4 has the potential to normalize triglyceride levels. The large population of patients with elevated triglycerides is heterogeneous-comprising patients with rare genetic disorders to large patient groups, such as type 2 diabetics.
5Prime will utilize naturally occurring genetic variation to mimic the effect of ANGPTL4 inhibition in very large groups of patients, identifying the patients most likely to benefit from Lipisense treatment. Human genetics will also allow for a comparison of ANGPTL4 inhibition to other targets in the pathway, thereby anticipating the unique benefits.
Lipigon CEO Stefan K. Nilsson comments:
"We are excited to have partnered with 5Prime to use human genetics to accelerate the development of Lipisense. It is well known that there is considerable genetic support for our target gene, but with the help of 5Prime we will be able to anticipate which potential patient groups have the most benefit from Lipisense treatment, and this will help us expand the treatment indications and optimize the design of our clinical trials."
5Prime Sciences CEO Brent Richards comments:
"Lipigon has identified an excellent drug development opportunity, which will help to reduce the tremendous burden of lipid-mediated diseases. We look forward to using our expertise in endocrinology, human genetics, bioinformatics, and machine learning to expedite the delivery of Lipisense to patients."
About Lipisense
The drug candidate is an RNA therapeutics that prevents the cells from producing the disease-promoting target protein ANGPTL4 by destroying the protein-coding RNA before the target protein has been formed. The target protein has a strong genetic association with harmful blood lipids and related diseases.
Lipigon will now continue to conduct pre-clinical safety and efficacy studies with Lipisense. Submission of a clinical trial application is estimated to Q1 2022, and the start of the phase I study is estimated to Q2 2022.
For more information, please contact:
Stefan K. Nilsson, CEO, Lipigon
Email: stefan@lipigon.se
Phone: +46 705 78 17 68
About Lipigon
Lipigon develops novel therapeutics for patients with lipid metabolism disorders. The company is based on over 50 years of lipid research at Umeå University, Sweden. Lipigon's initial focus is on orphan drugs and niche indications, but in the long term, the company will have the opportunity to target broader indications in the area, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Lipigon's pipeline includes four active projects: the RNA-drug Lipisense, for treatment of hypertriglyceridemia; an RNA-drug for treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome; a gene therapy treatment for the rare disease lipodystrophy, together with Combigene AB (publ); and a small molecule program for the treatment of dyslipidemia in collaboration with HitGen (Inc).
The company's share (LPGO) is traded on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market. Certified Adviser is G&W Fondkommission, email: ca@gwkapital.se, phone: +46 8 503 000 50.
About 5Prime Sciences
5Prime is accelerating drug development for biotech, increasing investment return for venture capitalists, and helping large pharma make human genetics-based investments in their pipelines. Combining expertise in human genetics, clinical medicine, machine learning and bioinformatics, 5Prime applies algorithms to billions of data points from large human genetic studies to identify and validate drug targets, anticipate side-effects, expand indications, and select ideal participants for trials. For more information: admin@5primesciences.com