Modus Therapeutics presented data on sevuparin demonstrating its potential to treat anemia in chronic kidney disease at the annual American Society of Hematology (ASH)
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN – 11 December 2023: Modus Therapeutics AB (“Modus”), a company developing innovative treatments for patients with major unmet medical needs, announces data on its proprietary clinical candidate drug sevuparin and its ability to treat anemia and improve kidney status in a chronic kidney disease mouse model. The results were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), on December 10 in San Diego, USA.
The data from a preclinical disease model in mice presented at ASH, shows that sevuparin could represent a major advance in the treatment of anemia in chronic kidney disease and other disorders with chronic inflammation. About 10% of the general population is assumed to have Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) at stages 3-5 and in approximately ¼ of these, the condition is aggravated by anemia. In anemia, the number of red blood cells in the body or the hemoglobin concentration within them is lower than normal and when present in CKD, it significantly contributes to the overall disease. In addition to the effects on anemia, sevuparin also ameliorated kidney function and fibrosis in the treated animals.
The poster, entitled “The Heparinoid Sevuparin Improves Anemia and Kidney Status in a Mouse Model of Chronic Kidney Disease” were presented as a poster by Dr Michela Asperti, co-author and a senior member of Professor Maura Poli’s research group at the University of Brescia who is collaborating with Modus on this research.
The presentation included:
- Results describing the effects of sevuparin for up to 3 weeks on hemoglobin and other anemia measures as well as on kidney function and tissue fibrosis during experimental kidney disease in treated vs. untreated mice.
- Results describing the effects of sevuparin together with erythropoietin (EPO) for up to 6 weeks on hemoglobin and other anemia measures as well as on kidney function and tissue fibrosis during experimental kidney disease in treated vs. untreated mice and mice treated with EPO alone.
The abstract can be found here:
https://ash.confex.com/ash/2023/webprogram/Paper181587.html
Dr John Öhd, Chief Executive Officer of Modus Therapeutics commented: “We are proud to have presented such exciting findings in yesterday’s poster session at ASH as part of our longstanding collaboration with Professor Maura Poli and her research group at the University of Brescia. In the study we could observe that sevuparin, both alone and together with EPO had the ability to counteract the anemia in this chronic kidney disease mouse model with a maintained effect of up to 6 weeks, and in addition showed protective effects on kidney function as well as kidney tissue fibrosis in treated vs. untreated animals.”
John Öhd continues: “It is particularly encouraging that even as the effect of EPO alone was decreasing over time in the model, this could be counteracted by the addition of sevuparin along with stable maintenance of the effect on anemia. In the clinical setting, it is not uncommon for CKD patients to gradually become hyporesponsive to the standard of care, which opens of for potential uses of sevuparin in this setting.”