Overview
Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SIX: SANN) is a Swiss specialty pharmaceutical company focusing on the discovery, development and marketing of innovative pharmaceutical products for the treatment of orphan neuromuscular diseases. Santhera currently has three compounds in seven clinical-stage development programs.
Santhera's vision is to become a leading specialty pharmaceutical company offering therapies for a number of indications in this area of high unmet medical need which includes many orphan indications with no current therapy.
Santhera's first product, Catena® has received a marketing approval from Health Canada to treat Friedreich's Ataxia. In a recent clinical study, Catena® has been shown to improve the vision of patients suffering from Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (LHON). Regulatory submissions as potenially first treatment of this indication are planned in the first half of 2011. The drug is currently investigated in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (Phase III), MELAS syndrome (Phase IIa) and Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (Phase II). Santhera has partnered European commercialization rights for Catena®/Sovrima® in Friedreich's Ataxia and Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy to Takeda.
Santhera's second core program is fipamezole for the treatment of Dyskinesia in Parkinson's Disease. In 2009, a Phase IIb confirmed the efficacy of fipamezole in reducing levodopa-induced dyskinesia in Parkinson's patients. Phase III development and commercialization in the US and Canada are partnered to Biovail, while Ipsen has similar rights outside North America and Japan.
Nonclinical work for omigapil, the third compound, was recently completed for clinical development in Congenital Muscular Dystrophies.