SUN BIOPHARMA, INC. — Department of Health and Human Services STTR Phase I: 300

Description

Project Summary Pancreatitis is a significant public health problem accounting for over $ Billion of health care costs annually Approximately one third of patients with acute pancreatitis will go on to have recurrent pancreatitis Of those about will progress to chronic pancreatitis a painful disease with an increased risk of both diabetes and pancreatic cancer More than of people with just one episode of pancreatitis will develop diabetes Currently treatment for pancreatitis is palliative as there is no specific treatment available The pancreas has two parts the exocrine part where digestive enzymes are made and the endocrine part where insulin is made Pancreatitis occurs when digestive enzymes are activated and released into the pancreatic tissue rather than into the intestine In the tissue they initiate pancreatitis through their digestive activity We have identified a new drug SBP which is relatively specific for the pancreas and has been shown in pilot studies to decrease the severity of acute pancreatitis and the associated systemic inflammation Our results suggest that administration of a single dose may be effective as a specific treatment for pancreatitis We will evaluate using in vivo models to test the hypothesis that treatment with SBP lessens the injury caused by activated digestive enzymes in the tissue resulting in attenuation of pancreatitis Our experiments are designed to determine the effects of SBP on the exocrine pancreas secretion of enzymes into the blood stream systemic inflammation production of pro inflammatory cytokines and cell viability The in vivo experiments are specifically designed to determine the effect of SBP in the setting of both mild to moderate acute pancreatitis and severe acute pancreatitis The body of work resulting from this project will serve as a proof of concept that SBP is a candidate for clinical trials to test the efficacy of SBP in the treatment of pancreatitis Because there are no currently available treatments a positive result from this project will have a considerable impact on the field Project Narrative Pancreatitis is a significant public health problem accounting for over $ Billion of health care costs annually in this country and more hospital admissions than any other gastrointestinal disease More than of patients with just one episode of pancreatitis will develop diabetes and approximately one quarter will have recurrences of those will develop chronic pancreatitis a very painful debilitating disease with no effective treatment This project is designed to evaluate SBP for the treatment of pancreatitis and if successful it would be the first drug ever to treat pancreatitis rather than its symptoms and sequelae