Our Focus
Arena is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing oral drugs to benefit patients with serious diseases and disorders. Our lead independently developed drug candidate, lorcaserin hydrochloride, is intended for the treatment of obesity and is being evaluated in a Phase 3 clinical trial program. We also have other proprietary programs, such as programs intended to address insomnia and arterial thrombosis. Additionally, we have drug candidates being evaluated in partnership with pharmaceutical companies, including Merck & Co., Inc. and Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company.
Our Technologies
We focus our research and development efforts on GPCRs because they are a validated class of drug targets that mediate the majority of cell-to-cell communication in humans. A high percentage of today's prescription drugs target one or more GPCRs, and we believe that approved GPCR-based drugs target about 30% of the known non-sensory GPCRs. Selective targeting of specific GPCRs is intended to increase the likelihood of the desired pharmacology and minimize the risk of "off target" effects.
Our proprietary GPCR technologies provide the capability to find drugs that target both well-understood receptors with known function and promising novel GPCRs where the function is not yet understood. We believe our GPCR-focused technologies and integrated discovery and development capabilities will allow us to continue to build our pipeline of novel and selective drug candidates.
Our Development Pipeline
We have harnessed our technologies to create a broad clinical stage pipeline and additional compounds in preclinical and research testing. Our lead candidate, lorcaserin, is intended for the treatment of obesity and is being evaluated in a Phase 3 clinical trial program. BLOOM, BLOSSOM and BLOOM-DM comprise the entire planned Phase 3 clinical trial program for lorcaserin. Phase 2 clinical trials of lorcaserin found that patients given the drug experienced statistically significant, clinically meaningful and progressive weight loss. In addition, lorcaserin was generally well tolerated.
We are also developing APD125, an oral drug candidate that we discovered and believe has the potential to reduce insomnia symptoms and improve sleep maintenance. In a Phase 2a clinical trial conducted in patients with chronic insomnia, APD125 significantly improved endpoints measuring improvements in sleep maintenance. APD125 was well tolerated, and no next day impairment of cognitive function was observed. In April 2008, we initiated a Phase 2b clinical trial.
In addition, we are evaluating APD791, an oral drug candidate that we discovered and are investigating for the treatment and prevention of arterial thromboembolic diseases, such as acute coronary syndrome. In January 2008, we announced positive results from a Phase 1a clinical trial and initiated a Phase 1b clinical trial. Positive Phase 1a clinical trial results demonstrated that APD791 was well tolerated at all doses investigated and also established initial clinical validation of APD791's novel mechanism of action.
In addition to internal programs, we have partnerships with pharmaceutical companies, including Merck & Co., Inc. and Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, Inc. Our partnership with Merck is focused on niacin receptor agonists as treatments for atherosclerosis and other disorders. Our partnership with Ortho-McNeil is focused on receptor agonists of an orphan GPCR, the Glucose-Dependent Insulinotropic Receptor, or GDIR, as treatments for type 2 diabetes and other disorders.
Our Strategy
The key elements of our scientific and business strategy are to:
- Advance our lead programs. We intend to continue to advance our current drug candidates, with a partner or independently, through clinical development and, if successful, to commercialization.
- Discover and develop additional small molecule drug candidates targeting GPCRs. We intend to continue to discover and develop oral, small molecule compounds for GPCRs identified or validated through our research efforts.
- Focus on attractive market opportunities. Obesity, insomnia, diabetes, atherosclerosis and arterial thrombosis each represent large market opportunities. We intend to continue to focus on these and other markets with attractive commercial potential.
- Recognize significant economic value for our drug candidates under development. We intend to maximize the value of our drug candidates through both independent development and licensing and other partnership opportunities with pharmaceutical and larger biotechnology companies.
- Continue to build our development capabilities. To capitalize on our discoveries, we plan to continue to improve and expand our capabilities as our drug candidates enter into, and move through, clinical trials and to commercialization.
- Maintain strong discovery research capabilities. Our proprietary technologies, our drug discovery infrastructure and the integrated approach to research used by our scientists, have allowed us to identify a number of GPCR targets and novel compounds. We believe these and other discoveries will continue to fuel our pipeline.
(NOTE: This page was last updated: June 5, 2008.)
