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Alfimeprase to succeed Genentech's alteplase?

Nature Biotechnology volume 24, pages 875–876 (2006)Cite this article

An Erratum to this article was published on 01 September 2006

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Although the half-dozen enzyme treatments on the market today target specialized metabolic syndromes that affect at most a few thousand patients, Bayer and Nuvelo are following in the footsteps of San-Francisco-based Genentech by tackling a much bigger market: clotting disorders, which affect 10 million people in the US, Europe and Japan. Alfimeprase is currently being tested in two phase 3 clinical programs, one for acute peripheral arterial occlusion (PAO, also known as 'leg attack'), which affects about 100,000 people a year in the US, and one for catheter occlusion, which affects about 1 million people in the US each year. Scheduled to wrap-up late this year, the two trials will provide data for Nuvelo to take to the US Food and Drug Administration, and for Bayer of Leverkusen, Germany, to take to the European Medicines Agency. The companies hope to launch a phase 2 trial for stroke later this year and another for deep vein thrombosis in 2007.

Alfimeprase is an altered version of fibrolase, found in the venom of copperhead snakes of the southern US. Francis Markland, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Southern California, discovered the enzyme after reasoning that blood-eaters might secrete anti-clotting compounds. “It was part of a push for novel therapeutics from animals that eat blood,” said Michael Levy, senior vice president of R&D at Nuvelo.

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    Brian Vastag

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Vastag, B. Alfimeprase to succeed Genentech's alteplase?. Nat Biotechnol 24, 875–876 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0806-875

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