New drug could offer stroke victims extra hope

Xigen CEO Didier Coquoz says his company's new drug is one of the most promising he's ever seen (Xigen) Didier Coquoz CEO Xigen (Xigen)

In a few years' time emergency ward doctors could be injecting stroke patients with a new drug that would prevent the severe brain damage that frequently occurs subsequent to the initial attack.

This is the vision of Xigen SA, a Lausanne-based startup biotech firm.

The young firm is currently managing the research and development of the new drug, while raising the capital it needs to run human clinical trials.

If it is successful jumping the hurdles of testing, trials, approvals, and licensing, Xigen’s new drug could be on the market as early as 2009.

The firm says its formulation can be injected up to six hours after the initial stroke takes place and still have a positive effect.

People who suffer a stroke usually experience the death of an initial cluster of nerve cells but these send a death signal to neighbouring brain cells and this is what causes the paralysis and loss of brain function in many stroke victims afterwards.

Reduce stroke impact

“The drug could markedly reduce the impact and effects of a stroke,” said Xigen CEO Didier Coquoz, recently recruited back to Switzerland from H3 Pharma of Montreal, Canada.

He has been running Xigen since July when it raised SFr 1 million in seed stage venture capital from, among others, Zug-based Venture Incubator AG.

“I have seen lots of drugs in my life, and this is one of the most promising,” said Dr. Coquoz who draws on fifteen years of experience in managing pharmaceutical firms and drug development.

“Well beyond the money to be made in developing a drug for the world’s 2 million stroke victims annually, it is an extraordinary chance to satisfy this huge unmet medical need.”

“There is unfortunately really nothing like it right now, and it will be a life’s achievement to bring such a drug to the patients,” added Dr. Coquoz.

Other applications

Xigen’s drug candidate can turn off the cell-death signal in stroke patients, but it is also working on drugs that can turn on the cell-death signal in cancer cells, effectively killing the diseased cells without the need for radiation and toxic chemical therapies, for example.

Indeed, Xigen’s discoveries have wide ranging applications and to that end it has sold an exclusive license to another young Swiss company.

Auris Medical in Lohn, Switzerland, plans to develop drugs for neurological ear disease and disorders like hearing loss or tinnitus.

Tested only on animals to-date with very encouraging results, according to the firm and to its international Scientific Advisory Committee, it is preparing for Phase I clinical trials that will test the drug on humans next year.

Xigen is a spin-off of the University of Lausanne.

by Valerie Thompson