PRODUCT BACKGROUND
Entrepreneurs Thomas Collet and Bruce Markham founded Phrixus in 2006 to validate the potential of Carmeseal (P188) to treat heart failure. The Phrixus team selected P188 not only for the work of Professor Joseph Metzger Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, but also for the investment Burroughs Wellcome and other companies had made in P188.
Professor Metzger, now chair of Integrative Biology and Physiology at the University of Minnesota, has conducted experiments that showed P188 could boost the blood pumping capacity of damaged hearts by binding to the damaged regions of cell membrane.
When Carmeseal, which Dr. Metzger and his colleagues call a molecular Band-Aid is infused into the bloodstream, it finds microscopic tears in the heart muscle and binds with the tears. This can prevent the pathological leakage of calcium into the heart cells, which could cause calcium overload, and keep the heart from delivering sufficient oxygenation to the vital organs.
Pre-clinical efficacy results
There have been two in vivo efficacy studies conducted by Dr. Metzger for muscular dystrophy and two conducted for heart failure by Dr. Goldman and Dr. Sabbah.
Phrixus has collected the following indications of clinically relevant efficacy in predictive heart failure models:
- Muscular Dystrophy associated cardiac dysfunction – mice and dogs
- Normalizes end diastolic volume
- Prevents and may reverse remodeling in chronic models
- Protects intact skeletal muscle ex vivo
P188 "assists the heart to be more compliant during the relaxation phase - allowing more blood to flow into the heart," Dr. Metzger states.
- Heart attack induced heart failure – rats and dogs
- Increases ejection fraction (EF) by 25%
- Decreases end diastolic pressure by 4-13mm Hg
"If issues of dosing and long-term safety can be resolved, our research suggests that poloxamer 188 could be a new therapeutic agent for preventing or limiting progressive damage to the hearts of patients with muscular dystrophy," Dr. Metzger states.