Irish pharma's new type of aspirin nears initial trials

DUBLIN PHARMACEUTICAL firm Solvotrin Therapeutics is targeting a multi-billion-dollar market by developing a form of aspirin that avoids the most common side-effects associated with the drug.

Launched yesterday as the Government’s Innovation Task Force reported its findings, the company is currently moving towards Phase I clinical trials.

Aspirin is the world’s most commonly prescribed drug. It is used extensively in a preventative capacity by people looking to avoid heart attack or stroke.

However, side-effects threaten its popularity. While useful in preventing blood clots, the acidic nature of aspirin has led to problems with bleeding and ulcers in the stomach as it dissolves before entering the bloodstream.

Efforts to counteract this either by coating aspirin to slow down the speed at which it dissolves, or by taking a buffer solution to counteract the acidity, have been found to be largely ineffective.

John Gilmer believes he has found the answer. The Trinity scientist has added a molecule that deactivates the aspirin until it hits plasma as it enters the bloodstream. This protects the stomach and small intestine from harmful effects. “This is a major advance for doctors treating heart disease with aspirin,” said Dr Gilmer. “We are the first to develop a platform that protects the gastrointestinal tract from aspirin as it passes into the bloodstream, where it is bio-activated.”

Dr Gilmer has been working on his research since the late 1990s, with the breakthrough coming in 2001. In 2005, Enterprise Ireland came on board to help fund necessary proof-of-concept studies.

Working in collaboration with Trinity school of pharmacy colleagues Prof Marek Radomski, an expert in platelet biology, and gastroenterologist Dr Carlos Medina, Dr Gilmer is now looking to enter the drug into initial human clinical trials, which are projected to take place in Ireland towards the end of next year.

Through Enterprise Ireland, Dr Gilmer became involved in the inaugural Business Partners Programme. The scheme aims to match researchers in areas of commercial potential with entrepreneurs who have a track record of setting up companies.

Cork businessman Pat O’Flynn is a former finalist in the Ernst Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards. Most recently, he was chief executive of hazardous waste management company AVR-Safeway, a company he founded in 2002.

With a client list that included multinationals like Pfizer, Abbott Laboratories and Eli Lilly and having successfully sold the company on to industry heavyweight Veolia in 2008, he was seen as having experience of dealing with the sort of business situations that Solvotrin is likely to encounter as its develops.

Having come on board under the Enterprise Ireland programme, Mr O’Flynn has invested personally in the company, which is being spun out of Trinity College, and has been appointed chief executive. Trinity, Enterprise Ireland and Dr Gilmer are also investors, along with John O’Flynn and Dr Mark Ledwidge, director of heart failure research at St Vincent’s Hospital.

“I looked at a lot of different technologies under the Business Partners Programme, and this was the one that I was excited about,” Mr O’Flynn said.

Solvotrin is looking to attract an investor to help fund its development programme. Dr Gilmer has patented 38 compounds related to his research on “superaspirins” to prevent cancers and address arthritic conditions. However, the initial focus will be on the anti-platelet cardiovascular or blood-clotting market. Mr O’Flynn and Dr Gilmer are hopeful that initial trials will give some indication of the treatment’s efficacy as well as its safety, possibly fast-tracking the therapy’s path to market.