Strong animal data for Samaritan's CV drug

The USA's Samaritan Pharmaceuticals says that preclinical data from a series of animal studies shows that its cardiovascular drug SP-1000 reduces blood cholesterol.

The Las Vegas-headquartered drugmaker said that, in two different types of hypercholesterolemic animal models, the drug reduced blood cholesterol as well as removing cholesterol from the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol-apolipoprotein complex. The firm noted that these models included genetically-engineered and diet-induced animals and that the preclinical data is being prepared for submission to a peer-reviewed journal.

Janet Greeson, chief executive of Samaritan, stated that the novelty of SP-1000 as a new cholesterol therapy lies in its mechanism of action. Unlike all current cholesterol drugs, which act on the liver enzymes responsible for cholesterol synthesis, SP-1000 eliminates excessive cholesterol directly from the blood. Dr Greeson added that "our drug comes at a time when quite a few of the cholesterol-lowering statins are about to come off patent. We believe this is a drug that major pharmaceuticals will find compelling, as well as the patients who have extreme difficulty managing their cholesterol levels."