News | Stroke | December 14, 2022

Preventing Millions of Strokes and Heart Attacks Doesn’t Have to Come with the Risk of Life-threatening Bleeding

Verseon’s scientific journey to highly promising therapeutic candidates for cardiovascular disease appears in European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 

Edwards Lifesciences identified the top data releases from 2022 that contributed most to shaping awareness about the extent and impact of underdiagnosis and undertreatment of aortic stenosis (AS).

December 14, 2022 — Verseon announced that the European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry has published a paper describing the company’s groundbreaking research that led to promising novel drug candidates for cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death and disability in the world. Hundreds of millions of patients worldwide need anticoagulants to prevent clots that lead to life-threatening events like strokes, heart attacks, and pulmonary embolisms.  

However, currently prescribed so-called novel oral anticoagulants (NOACs) carry well-documented risks of major bleeds, which in many cases require hospitalization and can be life threatening. Developing drugs that prevent unwanted clots while preserving the body’s ability to stop excessive bleeding is the “Holy Grail” of anticoagulant drug programs. Verseon is developing a new generation of anticoagulants called PROACs (Precision Oral Anticoagulants) that address this very large unmet medical need. 

The peer-reviewed paper documents how Verseon’s medicinal chemistry team optimized various physicochemical properties — including potency, selectivity, and in vivo stability — of compounds from a novel class called N-acylpyrazoles. The resulting selective reversible covalent thrombin inhibitors are highly effective at preventing clots in animal models. Yet unlike NOACs, they do not inhibit thrombin-mediated activation of platelets, a critical step to stop injury-induced bleeding. Because of their unique mechanism of action, Verseon’s drug candidates have shown far lower bleeding risks in animal models. 

“We are pleased to document the great work and insights that went into the discovery and development of this novel class of direct thrombin inhibitors with unique pharmacology,” commented Dr. David Kita, Verseon’s Chief Scientific Officer. “We look forward to describing further work behind the development of our first PROAC clinical candidate (VE-1902), which we expect will address a significant unmet medical need affecting a very large number of cardiovascular patients worldwide.” 

The scientific paper, entitled “Discovery of novel N-acylpyrazoles as potent and selective thrombin inhibitors,” is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmech.2022.114855

 

For more information: www.verseon.com 


Related Content

News | Stroke

July 9, 2025 — InspireMD, Inc., developer of the CGuard Prime carotid stent system for the prevention of stroke ...

Home July 09, 2025
Home
News | Stroke

May 28, 2025 — Siemens Healthineers has introduced the first mobile stroke unit (MSU) featuring the Somatom On.site head ...

Home May 28, 2025
Home
News | Stroke

May 21, 2025 — RapidAI recently announced new study findings that show RapidAI’s clinically deep algorithms deliver ...

Home May 21, 2025
Home
News | Stroke

April 17, 2025 — Adults younger than 50 years of age had more than double the risk of having a stroke from migraine or ...

Home April 17, 2025
Home
News | Stroke

On April 9, 2025, the world’s first multisector advocacy movement dedicated to stroke — the Global Stroke Action ...

Home April 15, 2025
Home
News | Stroke

March 3, 2025 — Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, recently announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ...

Home March 04, 2025
Home
News | Stroke

Feb. 6, 2025 — New findings from the DiVERT Stroke clinical study showed women spent less time in the hospital, saw ...

Home February 07, 2025
Home
News | Stroke

Feb. 5, 2025 — Removing a clot blocking a medium- or small-sized artery in the brain mechanically is a safe treatment ...

Home February 07, 2025
Home
News | Stroke

Jan. 29, 2025 — Researchers at Ochsner Health, led by Hernan Bazan, MD, DFSVS, FACS, have developed a predictive model ...

Home January 30, 2025
Home
News | Stroke

Nov. 16, 2024 Anthos Therapeutics, Inc.recently presented new data at the American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific ...

Home November 18, 2024
Home
Subscribe Now