Clanotech AB

The Challenge

Pathological angiogenesis is a process that involves abnormal  growth of new blood vessels. Several diseases of the eye involve pathological angiogenesis in the retina, leading to visual impairment and blindness.  Ocular neovascular diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy are most common in an ageing population.  Current treatments are based on inhibitors of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). However, the treatment needs to be injected in the eye and is only partially effective.

Clanotech's Solution

Clanotech's lead candidate is an inhibitor of the α₅β₁-integrin receptor present on vascular endothelial cells. α₅β₁-integrin stimulates the unwanted formation of new blood vessels through pathways that are partly complimentary and partly interrelated with the VEGF pathway which is the target of today's drug therapy.
α₅β₁-integrin is strongly up-regulated in choroidal neovascularization, microvessels of diabetic patients and in cornea neovascularization indicating that α₅β₁-integrin antagonists are a new and promising area of research for the treatment of neovascularization in the eye.

Competitive Advantages

Clanotech's α₅β₁-integrin antagonist  offers a new mechanism to treat resistant or relapse patients to anti-VEGF-therapy, providing a sustained anti-angiogenic effect.  A new α₅β₁-integrin antagonist therapy has the potential to become an alternative therapy to standard care anti-VEGF treatment, but it may also become a complementary treatment to the current standard care in combination regimens.

The Market

The total global financial burden of AMD is estimated at USD 350bn each year¹  and there are around 4 million people suffering from the wet form of AMD worldwide². Lucentis, an anti-angiogenic product indicated for this disease, achieved sales close to USD 3.5 billion in 2010³. Between 70-90 % of diabetic patients develop diabetic retinopathy, and there are currently no effective pharmaceutical treatments available for these patients.