Roche acquires Borean Pharma's cardiovascular drug candidate Trimeric Apo A-I

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, May 8 - Roche and Borean Pharma AS announced Monday that they have signed a multifaceted agreement under which Roche receives exclusive rights to develop and commercialize Trimeric Apo A-I, Borean's lead candidate for the treatment of atherosclerosis, a form of heart disease.

The acquisition of Borean's trimeric Apo A-I forms a strategic fit for Roche and its pipeline of anti-atherosclerotic drugs, according to a company news release.

Under terms of the agreement, Roche said it will acquire all the intellectual property and rights to the preclinical Apo A-I asset from Borean Pharma, which is entering lead optimization. The transaction is expected to close during the second quarter of 2006. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The drug candidate is a trimerized version of the naturally occurring protein, Apolipoprotein A-I, or Apo A-I.

Apo A-I is the major protein component of high density lipoprotein, HDL, the so-called "good cholesterol."

Plasma levels of HDL and Apo A-I have been found to be inversely correlated with the incidence of atherosclerosis, officials said.

A recent phase 2 clinical trial demonstrated that a dimeric variant of Apolipoprotein A-I, Apo A-I Milano, reduced the fatty arterial plaque that triggers most heart attacks by an average of 4.2%. A trimerized version of the protein would be expected to have an even more pronounced effect, officials said.

Borean said it has demonstrated that trimerized APO A-I is able to stabilize and inhibit atheromatous plaque formation in mice arteries more effectively than the naturally occurring monomeric form.

Borean is an Aaurus, Denmark, biopharmaceutical and protein engineering company.

Roche is a Basel, Switzerland, pharmaceutical and health care company.

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