ACRI Events For the month of November-2012

 

Opportunity in the field of Drug Development – Smoking cessation

Antismoking foundations have sprouted at regular intervals consistently in different parts of the world, with an objective of overcoming the addiction to smoking. Various products have been undergone clinical research for efficacy and safety. There have been abundant developments in the form of extraction and novel delivery of nicotine that is devoid of dangerous and hazardous chemicals that usually part of smoke. Developments have evolved and promulgated into electric cigar and Trans dermal patches etc. Novel products with the variation in delivery system such as these are acting on the same receptors where the active from smoke too act. i.e., nicotinic receptors. Hence, there exists a scope for products that are devoid of nicotine. 

Lately, Varenicline an active is indicated for Smoking cessation. It is found to be more effective than NRTs and nicotine agonists^1&2.  Among the recent developments, Champix found to be the best of the rest. Drug of this kind work through the mechanism of competitative inhibition and prevent the nicotinic effects.  Nowadays, Clinical trials are being focused on towards the development of antismoking vaccine³. 

Recent news suggests that around 4.1 milliion US dollors have gone in drain through an exhaustive clinical trial performed by Glaxo – Nabi collaboration for vaccine. The objective of that vaccine was supposed to induce the creation of an antibody; this in turn intends to prevent the transportation of nicotine through Blood Brain Barrier.  These concepts and drug targets are food for thought for those in the drug discovery and development fields. Currently, there are around 1.1 billion smokers in the world and these numbers are increasing steadily day after day; therefore, developments in the field of smoking cessation is the field that could be tapped by the pharmaceutical companies.

References:

1.   ^ ^a b Jorenby DE, Hays JT, Rigotti NA, Azoulay S, Watsky EJ, Williams KE, Billing CB, Gong J, Reeves KR (2006). "Efficacy of varenicline, an alpha4beta2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor partial agonist, vs placebo or sustained-release bupropion for smoking cessation: a randomized controlled trial". JAMA 296 (1): 56–63. doi:10.1001/jama.296.1.56.PMID 16820547.

2.   ^ ^a b Mills EJ, Wu P, Spurden D, Ebbert JO, Wilson K (2009). "Efficacy of pharmacotherapies for short-term smoking abstinance: a systematic review and meta-analysis". Harm Reduct J 6: 25. doi:10.1186/1477-7517-6-25. PMC 2760513. PMID 19761618.

3.   http://www.naturalnews.com/033071_smoking_vaccine_clinical_trials.html

Is There a Hope For Type II Diabetes Patients ?? 

There are lots of clinical trials that are happening in the field of diabetes treatment. Most of the trials are focused on the adjuvant therapy and also on improving the existing delivery mechanism. Recently in the news about a phase II trial conducted for a product Imeglimin, a novel compound as an add-on therapy to Sitagliptin (Imeglimin-Sitagliptin Therapy Shows Significant Benefits In Type 2 Diabetes." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 5 Nov. 2012. Web 6 Nov. 2012. For more info, visit Medical News Today).

                

             

As per the bulletin, the combination found to be effective in reducing the blood glucose. News of this kind is common nowadays and most of the results are from the early stage clinical trials. The sample size of this particular trial is just 150 and it is certainly not a size on which the decision can be made. The majority of trials fail in the 3rd phase of the clinical trial and mostly due to the increased number of variables and sample size. Hence, news of this kind is certainly not the answer for the long wait; however this can provide a glimmer of hope for the type II diabetic’s patients.