Therapeutic areas
Three areas of significant medical need
Snowdon is focused on three therapeutic areas that address significant medical needs in the nation and the world: pain, neurological disorders, and infectious diseases. In each, the company has discovered prospective drug candidates.
The pipeline extends from new chemical entities to repurposing off-patent drugs for new clinical indications.
Pain
Acute and chronic pain
The development of pharmaceutical agents that are safe, effective and long acting truly represents the “Holy Grail” of pain management. Acute pain is usually caused by a traumatic event, such as a broken bone, back injury, skin burn, or severe headache, whereas chronic pain often arises from a degenerative disease such as cancer or arthritis or from damage to the nervous system (neuropathic pain). Some familiar causes of neuropathic pain are herpes zoster (shingles), diabetes (diabetic neuropathy), fibromyalgia, and multiple sclerosis.
Snowdon is developing novel treatments for chronic and neuropathic pain. Its leading preclinical candidate, SND-121, has demonstrated positive results in rat models as a treatment for neuropathic pain. Further preclinical studies are underway on prodrugs of SND-121 with improved water solubility and GI permeability for enhanced systemic uptake when administered orally.
Neurology
Neurological disorders
Excessive transmission of chemical signals between neurons in the brains of humans is associated with a host of neurological and psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, autism, epilepsy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), drug addiction, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Specifically, an increasing body of evidence has implicated glutamate excitotoxicity as a common mechanism of neuronal death in both acute and chronic neurological diseases.
Snowdon is actively developing novel medical treatments that will reduce this excessive transmission of glutamate between neurons back to normal levels. Several novel molecules have been discovered that show encouraging results in laboratory studies and in animal models.
Infectious disease
Infectious diseases
Infectious diseases usually occur by natural causes, but there is growing awareness that infectious agents can be spread through deliberate efforts as acts of terrorism. Both routes of infection represent major threats to our national security and to global health and stability. Snowdon is investigating two drug prospects, SND-159 for tuberculosis and SND-226 for toxoplasmosis.
Snowdon, working with researchers at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, has discovered a small-molecule compound designated SND-159 that is effective in inhibiting the tuberculosis bacterium, including an MDR-TB strain, under various culture conditions. Working with toxoplasmosis expert Rima McLeod, M.D., of the University of Chicago Medical School and funded by the NIH, Snowdon is developing novel small-molecule inhibitors of toxoplasmosis; SND-226 has demonstrated sub-100 nM inhibitory activity.
Tuberculosis
Why a new TB drug
Tuberculosis (TB) is a major global pandemic that is estimated to infect one-third of the world population at any given time. The disease causes more deaths than any other single infectious agent in the world. The current first-line TB regimen — combinations of isoniazid, rifampin, pyrazinamide and ethambutol — entails a wide range of side effects and requires prolonged (6-9 month) chemotherapy, which leads to poor compliance and to drug-resistant disease.
SND-159 was discovered with researchers at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, and studies to date suggest its mechanism of action is unique compared with other TB drugs.
Toxoplasmosis
Why a new toxoplasmosis drug
Toxoplasma gondii is a ubiquitous opportunistic pathogen and the leading cause of severe congenital neurological and ocular disease in humans. Approximately 10% of HIV/AIDS patients in the U.S. and 30% in Europe die from toxoplasmosis. Available medicines carry significant toxicity, and none eliminates the encysted form of the parasite that causes relapse.
Snowdon is developing the work with Rima McLeod, M.D., of the University of Chicago, funded by the NIH.
Working with Snowdon
Partnering, licensing and scientific enquiries
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