In a recent email to Rosacea News, Dr. Eduardo Pérez, VP of Operations at Signum Biosciences has confirmed that SIG990 is undergoing preclinical safety/toxicology testing as required by the FDA before clinical trials can commence. You can see this confirmed at the company’s web site: Pharmaceutical Development Pipeline.
Signum Biosciences has several molecules under development, SIG990 is their lead candidate for rosacea.
Anti-Redness Efficacy of SIG0990
In an article perhaps somewhat cryptically titled Signal transduction modulators to treat rosacea, Signum Biosciences introduced us to their work “that targets several stages of the inflammatory cascade, resulting in a significant reduction of redness and erythema. This class of anti-inflammatory STMs inhibits inflammation by reducing the release of critical inflammatory mediators that underlie rosacea pathogenesis, including tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukins IL-1, IL-6, and IL-8. This leads to a dramatic reduction in neutrophil infiltration and the consequent production of toxic reactive oxygen species.”
(extract) Activity of STMs and topical rosacea treatments.
Using a mouse ear model of inflammation, compounds were tested for activity measuring for the reduction of erythema. Compounds azelaic acid (Finacea 15%), metronidazole (Metrogel 1%), brimonidine 0.2%, STMs (SIG0990 4%).
The above graph extracted from the article published in the RRDi journal is a teaser for more detailed data that has been presented at the Society of Investigative Dermatology 2010 Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. More on that paper soon.
The graph suggests that in their studies, SIG990 potentially has superior anti-erythema effects compared to both the well known Finacea and Metrogel products and the yet-to-be-approved Brimodine based (Sansrosa) product.
Good News for Rosacea Sufferers
If this research translates safely and effectively to human skin then Signum Biosciences’s data suggests that they may have a new class of anti-erythema product on its hands.
As we know from the development pipeline of other developing treatments, the path from interesting molecule to approved product is measured in years and fraught with delays and pitfalls. Dr. Pérez estimation of this product being several years away seems to be a fair estimate to heed.
Arazine Available Soon
Dr. Pérez has confirmed that their first-generation-molecule based product known as Arazine will available next month (June 2010) via Rohto Pharmaceuticals in Japan.
[update]: DRx AFC Medirepair (Arazine) is now available in Japan.
Holy crap thats the first time i’ve been excited in awhile! Hopefully sanrosa comes out soon to hold us over for this type of treatment. I wonder if its viable in the long term. Could the effects be cumulative? Would they wear off? Targeting the inflammatory process in this way is really exciting. Something we’ve all been waiting for. 😀
What is ‘Arazine’?
Arazine is a topical anti-inflammatory that is the first of their products to be released commercially. There is more details on Arazine here : STM Platform » Skin Care and Cosmetics
It is exciting to see new treatments under development, but it is good to remember that so far, all we have is a web site with some words, a little published research and just the beginnings of a product development pipeline. There is still a long way to go with plenty of opportunities for things to go wrong or be delayed.
davidp.
I looked on the Rohto website, Arazine is not there yet – but I also noticed that you couldn’t order any products from the website, it was just showing what they sold. How are we going to purchase Arazine when it’s released next month if not from the Rohto site!??
Indeed there has been no discussion from them whether it will be sold worldwide from Japan or not, just that Rohto have the expertise and resources to actually bring Signum’s first product to market.
What is ‘Arazine’?
Any thoughts on blushing?
Why does the chart show metrogel 20% reduction? It does nothing for redness.
It may not feel like it, but metrogel does help a little with redness. The anti inflammatory effects do result in some reduction in redness, but perhaps just not the total clearance that most of us are looking for.
I was always unsatisfied with the amount of clearance from metrogel, but felt that it did help with the redness a little bit.
davidp.
David, I’ve never heard of Brominidine. It appears to be more effective than the two most popular anti-rosacea prescriptions … what am I missing?
Pardon me … ‘Brimonidine’ not ‘Brominidine’. 😉
Hi BellaBleu,
Brimonidine is short for Brimonidine Tartrate, the active molecule in a treatment called Alphagan-P, used to treat the condition of the eye called glaucoma.
This active is the genesis of the in-development treatment known variously as COL-118, Sansrosa and now CD07805/47.
Read more about Sansrosa.
So what the authors of the graph are saying (if someone obliquely) is that their discovery is better than all currently known anti-redness treatments.
davidp.