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Promising results from Medivir’s pain study

Medivir announces that promising data from its cathepsin S inhibitor drug development program for neuropathic pain will be presented at The 15th World Congress on Pain.
The data to be presented support the development of a potent oral cathepsin S inhibitor such as MIV-247 as a new treatment for neuropathic pain. MIV-247 is a potent and highly selective inhibitor of cathepsin S. Cathepsin S is a protease which has been shown to be important for the maintenance of the neuropathic pain state, through its action in releasing membrane-bound fractalkine (a pro-inflammatory peptide) from the surface of neurons. Fractalkine is a potent chemokine which stimulates the recruitment of inflammatory cells to the sites of neuronal damage and activates microglia. These cells are implicated as key drivers in the pathogenesis of chronic neuropathic pain. The inhibition of cathepsin S results in reduced pain related behavior in preclinical models of neuropathic pain.
“We are very excited about these promising data, which provide support for a potential new efficacious and safe treatment option for the many patients which are suffering from chronic neuropathic pain and in whom current treatments are ineffective or poorly tolerated because of their side effects. The findings that addition of a cathepsin S inhibitor to current standard treatment could enhance the efficacy also opens for the potential to decrease doses of the companion drug and hence their side effects,” says Charlotte Edenius, EVP Development at Medivir AB.
Published: October 10, 2014