Emmaus Medical, Inc. Enters Into Sub-License Agreement for Treatment of Short Bowel Syndrome
TORRANCE, Calif., Dec. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Emmaus Medical, Inc., a Torrance, California based pharmaceutical company, announced today that it has entered into an exclusive sublicense agreement with Cato BioVentures of Research Triangle Park, North Carolina for the patent protected drug NutreStore(TM) brand L-Glutamine. Under this agreement, Emmaus will commercialize NutreStore(TM), which is approved by the FDA for use in combination with human growth hormone as a treatment for short bowel syndrome (SBS). Emmaus will be introducing NutreStore(TM) in the spring of 2008 and projects that its sales will greatly contribute to its short and long term financial performance of the company.
SBS is a serious and life threatening condition afflicting around 20,000 Americans who have lost large portions of their small intestine. This leads to a malnourished condition requiring total parenteral nutrition (TPN) through intravenous feeding.
NutreStore(TM) in conjunction with human growth hormone and an appropriate diet is the first new treatment since the development of TPN for patients with short bowel syndrome. Clinical studies of this combination therapy administered to SBS patients dependent upon TPN for nutritional support showed a significant reduction in the required weekly volume, caloric content and frequency of TPN administration compared to patients treated with human growth hormone alone. "This combination therapy offers patients a unique opportunity to improve intestinal absorption of food, which leads to a much better quality of life for SBS patients," said Douglas Wilmore, M.D., a board member of Emmaus. Dr. Wilmore is an Emeritus Frank Sawyer Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, the inventor of this SBS treatment, and Editor-in-Chief of the Medscape General Surgery section of Medscape Today, at http://www.WebMD.com.
Currently, patients who require L-Glutamine must purchase non-pharmaceutical grade L-Glutamine on their own without insurance coverage. With a prescription, NutreStore(TM) will be covered by insurance, thus lifting a large financial burden from patients who wish to optimize their SBS treatment with an FDA approved pharmaceutical product.
"Cato BioVentures is excited to partner with Emmaus Medical for the marketing of NutreStore(TM) and looks forward to a long and successful relationship with the company," said Joel Eisner, Ph.D., Associate Principal of Cato BioVentures.
About Emmaus Medical, Inc.
Emmaus Medical, Inc., led by Yutaka Niihara, M.D., M.P.H., CEO, and Daniel R. Kimbell, Esq., COO, is a private company founded to develop new treatments for sickle cell disease and other orphan diseases such as SBS. Emmaus works closely with the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LABioMed) and is currently conducting multi-center, double blind, placebo controlled, clinical trials to determine the safety and efficacy of L-Glutamine for sickle cell disease. Emmaus Medical is the recipient of an FDA orphan drug designation and fast track designation for the sickle cell project. For more information, please visit our website http://www.emmausmedical.com.
About Cato BioVentures
Cato BioVentures is the venture capital affiliate of Cato Research Ltd. For nearly 20 years, Cato BioVentures has assisted entrepreneurs and established management teams in building successful life science companies. Through strategic CRO service agreements with Cato Research, Cato BioVentures invests its in-kind CRO Service Capital in innovative therapeutics, medical devices, diagnostics and platform tools and technologies for improved drug discovery and development, offering promising life science companies immediate access to a broad range of essential CRO services on a noncash basis. Access to these time-critical CRO services enables management to achieve key value-added development and regulatory milestones with less reliance on other sources of capital. Cato BioVentures has offices in Boston's Bay Colony, Research Triangle Park and Silicon Valley. For more information, please visit our website http://www.catobioventures.com.
hmacan@emmausmedical.comjeisner@cato.com
CONTACT: Henry Macan, M.D., Senior Manager of Emmaus Medical, Inc.,
+1-310-214-0065, hmacan@emmausmedical.com; or Joel Eisner, Ph.D., Associate
Principal of Cato BioVentures, +1-919-361-2286, jeisner@cato.com
Web site: http://www.emmausmedical.com/
http://www.catobioventures.com/