Verva’s on-going mode-of-action studies have recently shown that our lead clinical product VVP808 is a new class of insulin sensitiser that also appears to decrease hepatic glucose production. Verva’s business development discussions have identified significant market interest in new insulin sensitisers without the side-effects of the currently-marketed thiazolidinediones. In addition to lowering blood glucose, VVP808 also causes modest weight loss in obese diabetic mice. If this weight loss translates to the clinical setting, then VVP808 will provide a value-added health benefit along with improved glucose control.
Verva has an active discovery program to identify potent next-generation molecules based on VVP808 structure and mode-of-action. This process has been accelerated by a collaboration with Eidogen-Sertanty, Inc. (San Diego, California) who employed their computer models to compare the 3-dimensional (i.e. target binding) structure of VVP808 to 1.4 million compounds in the Eidogen Sertanty database. Thirty molecules discovered from this screen have since been evaluated in vitro and Verva has identified 5 new scaffolds for continued evaluation and potential development.
Verva continues preclinical evaluation of both our fat reducing technologies. Key data demonstrating the ability of FGFR modulators to both prevent and reverse obesity in diet-induced obese mice were presented at the American Diabetes Association 68th Scientific Sessions in San Francisco, 2008 (Yu XX et al. Decreased Adiposity and Improved Insulin Sensitivity in Obese Mice after Suppression of Hepatic and Adipose Tissue FGFR4 Expression. Abstract 1708-P).