Verseon Corporation has announced the launch of a drug program developing oral treatments for HAE. In their interim report, the Company presents data from a well-established HAE disease model which demonstrate the efficacy of their plasma kallikrein inhibitors in reducing swelling.

An oral therapeutic would be a life-changing development for HAE patients who currently rely on treatments administered via intravenous or subcutaneous injections. Verseon is building on expertise established in its diabetic macular edema program to develop small-molecule plasma kallikrein inhibitors suitable for oral dosing. Plasma kallikrein is an established target central to the HAE disease pathway, which is used in existing HAE treatments, including Shire’s injectable HAE drug Kalbitor.

Verseon has developed a range of plasma kallikrein inhibitors using its computationally driven drug discovery platform. Many of these inhibitors have demonstrated good oral pharmacokinetic exposure, which is critical for convenient once-a-day oral dosing. In the interim report, Verseon presents data on a lead candidate that reduces swelling with efficacy comparable to a positive control in a carrageenan-induced paw edema model, a standard preclinical model for HAE.

Dr. David Kita, Vice President of R&D at Verseon, commented, “We are excited about the promising preclinical results for our HAE candidates. We are continuing to optimize our drug candidates for oral bioavailability, efficacy, and safety to develop an effective and convenient treatment, which has the potential to change the standard of care for HAE patients.”

Verseon is a technology-based pharmaceutical company that employs its proprietary, computational drug discovery platform to develop novel therapeutics that are unlikely to be found using conventional methods. The Company is applying its platform to a growing drug pipeline and currently has four active drug programs in the areas of HAE, anticoagulation, diabetic macular edema, and oncology.
(Source: Verseon)