Wyeth and Karo Bio extend research partnership

Swedish company Karo Bio has announced it is to extend is research collaboration agreement with Wyeth for a further year.

The companies’ atherosclerosis agreement will now run until the end of August 2009, with the primary objective of identifying and selecting development candidates for the treatment of the condition.

Furthermore, the agreement will also target LXR to evaluate additional clinical possibilities. A key regulator of cholesterol metabolism in mammals, LXR is a nuclear hormone receptor.

LXR modulation with small molecule compounds has been shown to reduce the progression of atherosclerotic disease by enhancing the efflux of cholesterol from cells in atherosclerotic blood vessels.

It has also been implicated in reducing vascular inflammation.

The companies initiated their partnership in 2001 with the goal of using LXR as target receptor to develop novel compounds for the treatment of atherosclerosis.

Per Olof Wallstrom, president of Karo Bio, said: “We are enthusiastic about the continuation of our joint collaboration and we see good prospects for selection of new development candidates.”

He added the company is also excited about an expansion of the clinical opportunities for compounds that target LXR.

Last month, Wyeth and Elan presented positive phase II clinical trial results for bapneuzumab at the international conference of the Alzheimer’s Disease Association in Chicago.