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2008
27 November 2008: Announcement no. 3, 2008: Zealand Pharma and Helsinn Healthcare S...
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Product Pipeline
Zealand's Pipeline comprises 1 compound in phase III, 1 compound in phase II, 2 c...
Rotigaptide
Rotigaptide (Zealand name ZP123) is a novel compound developed with the aim of preventing life threatening ventricular arrhythmia by re-establishing heart tissue conductance and function by modifying gap-junction communication.
Gap-junctions are specialized pores that ensure the coordinated transmission of electrical impulses from cell to cell across the heart. This spreading is essential for synchronized contraction of the heart. During an acute myocardial infarction, blood supply to certain areas of the heart is suddenly interrupted and the gap-junction pores close, which inhibits spreading of electrical impulses. As a result, electrical impulses take atypical routes which may lead to irregular heart beats, or arrhythmias, and death. Rotigaptide/ZP123 has the ability to normalize the functions of gap-junctions when the heart is stressed and the gap-junctions are not communicating, but no effect has been observed on healthy cardiac tissue.
Rotigaptide, which was outlicensed to Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in April 2003, was expected to be the first specific gap-junction modifying drug. Wyeth initiated clinical development of rotigaptide (GAP486 - Wyeth’s name for ZP123) for the prevention of ventricular arrhythmias in patients with an acute myocardial infarction caused by an acute blockage of blood vessels.
Wyeth has finalized three Phase I and three Phase II clinical trials with rotigaptide. Following identification of an orally available gap junction modifier (GAP-134/ZP1609), further development of rotigaptide was stopped.
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