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MERAND PHARMACEUTICALS, INC.

microRNA Therapeutics for Treating Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) and other Cardiovascular Disorders

A New Paradigm for Treating PAD

Merand is developing a microRNA called MPMI-93 that has the potential to alter the course for patients with PAD.

A critical problem with PAD is lack of blood getting into the muscle, resulting in pain:

  • MPMI-93 promotes formation of new blood vessels in the affected limb.

Previous strategies attempted to improve blood flow to muscles that lacked oxygen resulted in leaky blood vessels:

  • MPMI-93 promotes formation of non-leaky, functional blood vessels.

PAD causes inflammation in the affected limb. Inflammation in legs with low blood flow injures blood vessels and worsens the delivery of blood:

  • MPMI-93 reduces inflammation.

Merand will initiate is Phase 1 clinical trial in patients with PAD shortly.  Check back shortly for more information about this clinical study.

For more information, contact us

What is PAD

PAD is a complication of systemic atherosclerosis, often called hardening of the arteries, that leads to reduced blood flow to the legs. The most common problem seen in patients with PAD is pain with walking or claudication; a highly debilitating condition which prevents over half of PAD walking more than 1 city block. Patients with PAD can suffer numbness in the affected limb, ulcers, gangrene, amputation and eventually, death.

CLAUDICATION

Pain with Walking

CLAUDICATION

Pain with Walking

NUMBNESS

Pain at Rest

NUMBNESS

Pain at Rest

ULCERS

Pain & Risk Limb Loss

ULCERS

Pain & Risk Limb Loss

GANGRENE

Death of body tissue

GANGRENE

Death of body tissue

AMPUTATION

Removal of a body part

AMPUTATION

Removal of a body part

DEATH

Irreversible cessation

DEATH

Irreversible cessation

PAD is the #1 cause of amputation in adults.

Patients with PAD suffer from higher than expected rates of heart attach, stroke and death, even in the presence of “optimal medical therapy”.

MPMI-93 has the potential to treat legs and life.

Merand’s Solution: MPMI-93 in PAD

MicroRNA (miRNA) are small naturally-occurring RNAs that work in cell and condition specific manner to regulate multiple genes and pathways; especially in response to injury.  microRNA-93 (MPMI-93) is an important regulator of blood vessel formation and its levels are reduced in the muscles from patients with PAD.

A feature that distinguishes MPMI-93 from other agents that have been tested and failed in PAD studies, is that MPMi-93 (miR-93) grows stable (not leaky) blood vessels

MPMI-93 promotes a shift in macrophages in muscle from a pro-inflammatory (M1-like) to a reparative (M-2) anti-inflammatory state that will:

  • exert an indirect effect on endothelial cells in ischemic muscle to allow better growth and function.
  • exert an effect on macrophages that will limit the production of inflammatory cytokines that can assess the circulation and increase risk of heart disease.

“As a clinician who treats patients with advanced PAD, I have been frustrated by the lack of any truly effective therapies. I undertook a research program to identify a molecules that could promote blood flow in “challenging” models of PAD; models where other drugs have failed. We found that MPMI-93 not only worked to improve blood flow in these models, but also reduced inflammation.”

Dr. Brian Annex

Chief Medical Officer, Merand

Key Publications

PAD

More information on PAD

PAD

More information on PAD

miRNA93 (MPMI-93)

More information on miRNA93 (MPMI-93)

miRNA93 (MPMI-93)

More information on miRNA93 (MPMI-93)

Press releases

More publications

Press releases

More publications

Company ready to initiate First-in-Human, Phase 1, study with lead microRNA product MPMI-93 in patients with Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD).

2022 All rights reserved

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Doug Losordo, MD

Head, Clinical Advisory Board

Dr. Losordo most recently has held the position of Chief Medical Officer at KBP Bioscienses.  He joined KBP from Caladrius Biosciences, where he served as Executive Vice President, Global Head of Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer since 2013 and was a member of the Company’s Scientific Advisory Board from 2006 to 2013. Prior to Caladrius, he was Vice President, New Therapies Development, Regenerative Medicine, and a member of the Baxter Ventures team at Baxter International. Before beginning his career in the biotech industry in 2011, Dr. Losordo was the director of the Feinberg Cardiovascular Research Institute and the Eileen M. Foell Professor of Heart Research at Northwestern University’s School of Medicine and director of the Program in Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Previously he was Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine and Chief of Cardiovascular Research at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston. He is board-certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, and interventional cardiology. He received his M.D. from the University of Vermont. He has served as an associate editor of Circulation Research, the basic science journal of the American Heart Association, and serves on the editorial boards of a number of scientific journals.

Chuke Nwachuku, DrPH

Chief Development Officer

Dr. Nwachuku is the most recent member of the Merand management team, joining the Company in 2020.  He is an alumnus of the NIH and was the Scientific Project Officer for the ALLHAT trial.  In the biopharmaceutical Industry, Dr. Nwachuku has held leadership and line management roles in Bristol Myers Squibb, Astra Zeneca, and Daiichi Sankyo. He held positions of increasing responsibilities in Clinical Development and Regulatory Affairs. Of note was his leadership in the successful design, regulatory submission, building of the trial infrastructure, trial implementation, conduct, completion, and publication of a global, first-ever, proof of concept trial of a novel oral anticoagulant in PAD/CLI patients undergoing endovascular intervention. He has cultivated relationships with a broad range of thought leaders and academic partners in vascular diseases; and has sponsored two global thought leader workshops on emerging PAD/CLI therapeutics in the United State (NYC) and in Japan (Tokyo). Additionally, Dr. Nwachuku has organized several expert panels (KOL ad boards) globally in cardiovascular, renal, thrombosis and endocrine diseases.

Brian Annex, MD

Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Annex is the scientific founder of Merand and is currently working with the Company as its Chief Medical Officer, providing expertise in non-clinical and clinical development. For approximately two-decades, his research activities as a physician/clinician scientist have largely been focused in the area of PAD focusing on translational vascular biology approaches for the development of novel therapeutic approaches to treat patients with PAD.  Dr. Annex’ laboratories basic science focus is on angiogenesis, the growth and proliferation of existing vascular structures.  His laboratory has more than a decade of continuous multi-R01 NIH funding that has focused on PAD and his interdisciplinary translational research program uses a variable mix of pre-clinical (including in-vivo and in-vitro models) and focused human studies and this was the manner in which his group identified microRNA-93 (miR-93) as a potential human therapeutic.  He currently is Chair and Professor of Medicine and the Medical College of Georgia where he has three RO1 grants as Principle Investigator, 5 in total, which involve studies that focus at the intersection of inflammation, macrophages, and peripheral arterial disease In addition to the above research efforts, Dr. Annex has been involved in more than 10 Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3 studies of PAD and has experience with the FDA and various other regulatory groups.  Dr. Annex has also served as a key opinion leader and consultant/advisor for several multinational pharmaceutical companies and small biotechnology companies.

Tony Giordano, Ph.D.

President and CEO

Dr. Giordano is a co-founder of Merand. He has held senior management positions at eight separate biotechnology companies, including Message and Nucleonics, two companies focused on RNA platforms; Alteris, a cancer vaccine compound acquired by Celldex; TheraVasc, a PAD company which licensed its intellectual property to JanOne that is entering Phase 2 development with the lead product; and Sulfagenix, that developed a medical food that was marketed by a company with a medical food sales force.  At these and the other companies he led, he has been responsible for business planning, licensing, directing research and development efforts, fundraising and financial management. He was a consultant/advisor to three venture funds, a consultant to the Biomedical Research Foundation, and was appointed by the Governor of Louisiana to the Innovation Council. Dr. Giordano has secured over $7M in federal funding for the Companies he has managed and has 20 issued and several pending patent applications. Before beginning his career in biotech, Dr. Giordano was a senior scientist at Abbott Laboratories.  He has also served as Assistant Dean of Research and Business Development at LSU Health in Shreveport and as Senior Director of Special Projects in Innovations at the Cleveland Clinic.

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