Small Cap News — July 25, 2010
GlaxoSmithKline, Anthera Pharmaceuticals: Novel Treatments for Cardiovascular Disease
Jason Chew submits:
The cardiovascular disease (CVD) market is worth approximately $100 billion today and makes up 12% of all global pharmaceutical sales. Unit sales of medicines for CVD are growing, but patent expirations for drugs such as Lipitor will hold revenues down. The advent of statins in the treatment of CVD was an incredible advance in the field, however, recent attempts to develop new products have been less successful.
In recent years, the novel target, PLA2 has become the subject of substantial research. PLA2s, or Phospholipases A2, are enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of fatty acid chains from phospholipids. PLA2s play important an important role in lipid metabolism and inflammatory response. There are 15 known members of the PLA2 family, ordered into four subgroups: secretory sPLA2, cytosolic cPLA2, calcium independent iPLA2, and lipoprotein associated Lp-PLA2. Much attention has been focused on sPLA2 and Lp-PLA2 due to their involvement in the production of biologically active metabolites implicated in the pathology of atherosclerosis. In the last few years, cPLA2 has also come under increased scrutiny.
Small Cap News — July 25, 2010
GlaxoSmithKline, Anthera Pharmaceuticals: Novel Treatments for Cardiovascular Disease
Jason Chew submits:
The cardiovascular disease (CVD) market is worth approximately $100 billion today and makes up 12% of all global pharmaceutical sales. Unit sales of medicines for CVD are growing, but patent expirations for drugs such as Lipitor will hold revenues down. The advent of statins in the treatment of CVD was an incredible advance in the field, however, recent attempts to develop new products have been less successful.
In recent years, the novel target, PLA2 has become the subject of substantial research. PLA2s, or Phospholipases A2, are enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of fatty acid chains from phospholipids. PLA2s play important an important role in lipid metabolism and inflammatory response. There are 15 known members of the PLA2 family, ordered into four subgroups: secretory sPLA2, cytosolic cPLA2, calcium independent iPLA2, and lipoprotein associated Lp-PLA2. Much attention has been focused on sPLA2 and Lp-PLA2 due to their involvement in the production of biologically active metabolites implicated in the pathology of atherosclerosis. In the last few years, cPLA2 has also come under increased scrutiny.