iNovacia AB has developed active compounds as a step towards  treatment of a serious parasitic disease

2011-10-13

iNovacia, an internationally established contract research company owned by Kancera AB  (Nasdaq OMX Stockholm First North, KAN), announces today that highly potent inhibitors of a target protein in the parasite Schistosoma have been developed. This parasite infects annually about 200 million individuals in tropical or sub-tropical regions, resulting in over 280,000 deaths each year from the disease schistosomiasis (also known as bilharzios or snail fever).

iNovacia is a partner, with the main responsibility for drug discovery, in the ongoing EU-funded project SEtTReND (Schistosoma Epigenetics – Targets, Regulation, New Drugs). The project, operated together with partners in Europe and Brazil, aims to develop new active compounds to combat the parasitic disease schistosomiasis. iNovacia owns together with its partners in the EU project, the rights to jointly developed drugs against schistosomiasis. Selected inhibitors developed by iNovacia against the parasitic target protein will in the next step be tested directly against the parasites.

Thomas Olin, CEO of Kancera and iNovacia, comments: “We are very satisfied with how quickly the highly potent inhibitors have been developed against this parasitic disease target, which shows the strength of our compound library and the strength of cooperation with our partners in the SEtTReND project”.

About schistosomiasis
Schistosomes are parasitic flatworms that infect approximately 200 million individuals in over 75 countries in tropical or sub-tropical regions and cause over 280,000 deaths per year. Schistosomiasis is the second most serious parasitic disease affecting humans after malaria. Today there is only one effective drug available, Praziquantel, but reduced efficacy and resistant parasite strains is increasingly reported and the need for new drugs is urgent.

About iNovacia
iNovacia provides high-throughput screening, fragment-based screening and other drug discovery services to translate targets into validated leads for pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Enabled by a chemical library of highest international standard, unique biophysical tools for characterization of mode-of-action and SAR, iNovacia can minimize the technical risk and optimize lead-time and quality of drug discovery projects. iNovacia is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kancera AB (Nasdaq OMX Stockholm First North, KAN). Remium AB is the Certified Adviser to Kancera.

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