ResoTher Pharma, a biotech company focused on developing life-saving options for patients suffering from cardiovascular disease, today announced that the company has received a €2.5 million grant from the European Innovation Council (EIC) to support the development of the company’s Lead Compound, RTP-026, in a Phase 2a clinical study in Myocardial Infarction.
The project focusing on development of Resother Pharmas RTP-026 compound is one of 47 projects selected to receive funding out of 648 full proposals submitted for evaluation to the EIC-accelerator program. The grant given to ResoTher Pharma is defined as a “Grant first,” meaning that the project will be considered for further support by the European Investment Bank upon completion of the Phase 2a study supported by the current grant.
“The EIC Grant is a major boost to our RTP-026 development program,” says Anders Kronborg, CEO of ResoTher Pharma. “It has made it possible to focus entirely on development, thereby accelerating the Phase 2a development path with the aim to initiate dosing in Q1 2024.”
RTP-026 is developed as a new and innovative way to modulate the inflammatory response that occurs in the heart during the recovery phase of a myocardial infarction. Especially in the subset of patients showing high inflammatory activity, there is a need for novel treatments to reduce the risk of reinfarction and other major cardiovascular events.
Following the completion of Phase 1 development, RTP-026 is ready to enter Phase 2a development with the aim of testing the potential of the compounds to modulate the hyperinflammatory response of the heart in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention with the aim to reestablish blood supply in patients with acute myocardial infarction. In Phase 1 development conducted in healthy volunteers, the compound showed a very good safety profile when given as a single dose or in repeated dosing, with very good plasma exposure indicating a good safety profile relative to what is expected to be relevant exposure levels in patients.
The RTP-026 compound, an IP-protected analogue of the N-terminus of the Annexin A1 protein, is developed in collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London. The compound was designed and characterized in Professor Mauro Petretti’s laboratory at the William Harvey Research Institute.
The continued Phase 2 development, where the first step will be a Phase 2a dose range study to focus on safety and efficacy in a subset of high-risk ST-elevation Myocardial Infarction patients undergoing acute percutaneous coronary intervention will include active recruitment of patients at the Barts Heart Centre at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, one of Europe’s biggest coronary departments in London.
” The EIC grant has made it possible to proceed with Phase 2 development at Barts Heart Centre of a compound designed and characterized at Queen Mary. This important partnership demonstrates how our cutting-edge research in translational Pharmacology in the inflammatory and cardiovascular field moves from the lab to improving better health outcomes in East London and beyond,” says Professor Sir Mark Caulfield, MD, Vice Principal for Health, Queen Mary University of London, Director of the NIHR Barts Biomedical Research Centre.
“Resother Pharma previously received non-diluting funding from the Danish Innovation Fund and from Barts Charity, and continued collaboration with William Harvey Research Institute, a world-leading translational Pharmacology institute at Queen Mary University of London, has been highly valued,” says Anders Kronborg, CEO of ResoTher Pharma.
