Snowdon Inc.

Therapeutic Area: Infectious Diseases

Treatments for Tuberculosis: Tuberculosis (TB) is a major global pandemic that is estimated to infect one-third of the world population at any one time. The disease causes more deaths than any other single infectious agent in the world. Over 9 million new cases of TB occurred in both 2006 and 2007, and about 2 million deaths were attributed at least in part to TB in 2007. While TB disproportionately affects developing nations such as Africa, China, and India, the disease remains a serious and costly problem in industrialized nations including the US. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the economic cost of TB in sub-Saharan Africa alone was estimated at $40 billion annually.

The emergence of drug-resistant, Multiple Drug-Resistant (MDR), and Extensively Drug-Resistant (XDR) TB strains of the pathogen have developed and present challenges for therapeutic management. MDR-TB is generally treatable, but requires two years of treatment with more costly and less safe second-line anti-TB drugs. XDR-TB is more severe as it comprises MDR plus resistance to fluoroquinolone, and at least one of the second line injectable drugs such as capreomycin, kanamycin or amikacin. The current first-line TB drug regimen consists of combinations of isoniazid (INH), rifampin (RIF), pyrazinamide (PZA), and ethambutol (EMB). These TB drugs entail a wide range of side effects including nausea, vomiting, constipation, psychotic episodes, and hepatitis. Moreover, effective treatment requires many months (6-9 months) of antibiotic chemotherapy. The occurrence of these debilitating side effects, and the long duration of treatment, leads to a high proportion of failure in patient compliance. This, in turn, leads to disease management problems and the onset of drug-resistant disease. Thus, the discovery of new types of drugs which effectively control TB and which possess a minimum side-effect profile is urgently needed.

Another major challenge is the treatment of Latent Tuberculosis Infection (LTBI), which must be addressed to reduce the risk that TB infection will progress to disease. The current “gold standard” treatment of LTBI in the US is 9 months of INH. The risk of hepatotoxicity with INH, together with the protracted treatment regimen, underscores the need for alternative TB treatments that are safer, more effective, and shorter in duration.

Snowdon, together with researchers at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), has discovered a small-molecule compound designated SND-159 that is effective in inhibiting the tuberculosis bacterium (including a MDR-TB strain) under various culture conditions in the laboratory. Encouragingly, SND-159 also significantly decreased the viability of latent M.tb strains. Unlike the current first-line and second-line TB drugs, SND-159 is very safe and offers the advantage of a minimal side effect profile. Studies to date suggest that the mechanism of action of SND-159 is unique compared with other TB drugs. Snowdon is actively pursuing SND-159, alone or in combination with current TB drugs, as a novel TB drug therapy that is safe, effective, and faster acting.

Treatments for Biowarfare Pathogens: Scientists at Snowdon and UMDNJ have discovered an FDA-approved drug designated SND-121 that that offers prospects as a safe and effective oral therapy for treatment of dangerous biological pathogens that pose a threat to public health and security. Unlike many existing medical treatments employed for this purpose, SND-121 is very safe with minimal toxicity to humans. Snowdon is conducting preclinical studies to evaluate SND-121 as a broad-spectrum therapy effective against a wide range of biopathogens including bacteria, viruses, and parasites.

Therapeutic Areas: Cancer | Acute and Chronic Pain | Neurological Disorders| Infectious Diseases