Gout relief drug one step closer
New Zealand scientists have taken an important step in developing a new anti-inflammatory drug to relieve millions of gout sufferers.
TerraMarine Pharmaceuticals – a joint venture between the National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Crop & Food Research, and the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research – has filed a patent for a range of compounds with anti-inflammatory activity. Also included among the inventors are collaborators from Auckland University.
Gout is a painful inflammatory disease that affects millions of sufferers worldwide and has a particularly high incidence in New Zealand. It is especially problematic for older people, for whom existing gout relief drugs can have serious side-effects.
TerraMarine’s science programme, led by NIWA biotechnologist Dr Vicky Webb, was set up in 2002 to discover and commercialise new non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs derived from New Zealand plants and marine organisms. The initial focus is on developing drugs to relieve acute gout.
In 2003, the group identified a natural anti-inflammatory compound from a marine organism. With help from scientists at Auckland University, the group then determined its chemical structure and created a number of similar synthetic versions.
‘Synthesising these compounds is an important step in being able to produce sufficient quantities to test in clinical trials and, eventually, produce them commercially’, says Dr Webb.
Tests conducted by the Malaghan Institute showed that the natural, as well as several of the synthetic, compounds reduced inflammation in cell cultures, and in mice with gouty arthritis.
Patent applications for these compounds were filed in the USA, Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand on 17 March.
New Zealand is home to a very diverse range of marine and land organisms which offer a wealth of potentially useful bioactive compounds. This largely untapped resource offers huge health and economic benefits, but unlocking it is a slow process that requires long-term commitment.
The Foundation for Research, Science, and Technology (FRST) funded the five years of research that brought TerraMarine to this point. The group hopes to begin pre-clinical development in the near future, with an aim to conducting clinical trials in New Zealand.
For background information on TerraMarine’s bioactives research, see:
http://www.niwascience.co.nz/pubs/wa/14-3/terramarine.