Emerging diabetes drugs consider beta cell mass and function as an important target

The next generation of diabetes drugs still is focused on metabolic approaches, but activities to preserve or even regenerate pancreatic islet cell mass and function are gaining momentum

Barcelona, Spain | August 28, 2008 | The Business Intelligence firm La Merie S.L. reported from its most recent analysis of emerging diabetes drugs and targets that of the 59 different treatment modalities in clinical development, the majority (36) were metabolic approaches. Preservation of the pancreatic islet cell mass and function as well as intents to regenerate beta cells represent an area of increasing activity and relevance with eleven different programs in clinical stages. Althoug still in a pioneer phase, cell therapy is gaining momentum in corporate diabetes programs as islet transplant or stem cell approaches. At least eight clinical stage programs aim at limiting inflammation leading to beta cell destruction and, thus, also preserve mass and function. Two classes of emerging metabolic approaches stand out from the remainder: the glucose-dependent stimulation of insulin release or secretion by glucokinase activators or direct activation of the GPR119 receptor and the suppression of glucocorticoid action by inhibition of the 11-beta hydroxysteroid dehyrogenase type 1 (HSD-1) or directly of the glucocorticoid receptor. These results and more were found in a search conducted by La Merie Business Intelligence. The evaluation can be acquired at La Merie’s online store (www.pipelinereview.com/store ).

The report provides information on emerging diabetes drugs directed at new targets which are different from the established diabetes targets PPAR, DPP-IV, GLP-1 and SGLT. It lists competitor projects in the clinical and preclinical pipeline of emerging diabetes drug classes such as glucokinase activators, HSD-1 inhibitors, AMP-activated protein kinase activators, FGF-12 approaches and many more metabolic approaches. The pipeline analysis includes activities to preserve beta cell mass and function by active and passive immunotherapy, by SIRT and gastrin based directions as well as anti-inflammatory approaches. In addition, the report describes the diabetes R&D portfolio of all companies with emerging diabetes drugs including projects for established targets.

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La Merie S.L. is a Business Intelligence enterprise fully dedicated to provide high quality R&D information to the biopharmaceutical industry. La Merie offers individual consultancy services and publishes reports and periodicals. For more information visit www.lamerie.com.

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SOURCE: La Merie Business Intelligence