SFA Therapeutics Wins Second Key U.S. Patent For Treatment of Chronic Liver Diseases

March 19, 2019 Off By BusinessWire

Targets Liver Cancer

JENKINTOWN, Pa.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HCC?src=hash" target="_blank"gt;#HCClt;/agt;–SFA Therapeutics today announced approval of the second key U.S. patent
derived from its research & development program, which utilizes
microbiome-derived metabolite small molecules as drugs to modulate the
body’s anti-inflammatory and immune systems (USPTO #10,231,941).

As a result of this new patent, targeting Ffar2 (GPR43) and Ffar3
(GPR441) and down-regulation of NF-ĸB, the therapeutic applications of
SFA’s first major drug, SFA001, will now expand from prevention of the
progression of hepatitis B to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC- the most
prevalent form of liver cancer) to direct treatment for patients
afflicted with liver fibrosis, NASH, or liver cancer derived from HCC.

Commenting on the significance of this achievement, Dr. Mark Feitelson,
Ph.D., Professor of Biology and Chair of the Professional Science
Master’s Program in Biotechnology at Temple University stated:

“Chronic hepatitis B and C infections, nonalcoholic fatty liver
disease (NAFLD), nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and alcoholic
liver disease (ALD) are all associated with increased risk for the
development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

In all these cases, HCC arises on a background of long-term
inflammation (hepatitis) and tissue damage. HCC is the fifth most
prevalent cancer and second leading cause of cancer related deaths
worldwide with over 600,000 new patients diagnosed annually, most of
which have a poor prognosis. Thus, there is a pressing medical need to
develop new approaches to HCC prevention and treatment.

What SFA Therapeutics has done is to develop compounds from gut
bacteria that have anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor activities; and
demonstrate in preclinical models that these compounds
significantly delay the onset of HCC in 50% of treated animals
while blocking the growth of already established tumors.

Although antiviral compounds are available for patients with
hepatitis B and C, nothing is available to treat most of the other
patients with chronic liver diseases. SFA
Therapeutics’ microbiome-derived agents represent a ‘game-changing’ new
paradigm. Moreover, these compounds are nontoxic at therapeutic
doses, stable, can be taken orally, and will be cost competitive, so
that they will be accessible by patients in both developed and
developing countries.”

About SFA Therapeutics

SFA Therapeutics is a bio-pharmaceutical company focused on
new advancements in the treatment of inflammatory diseases, targeting
NF-κB. Chronic inflammation has been implicated in a wide range of
diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, lupus
(SLE), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Crohn’s Disease, psoriasis,
liver disease and the prevention of relapse/recurrence in AML and CLL.
These small-molecule drugs are derived from natural substances
and enable a new platform for developing newer, safer treatments aimed
at inflammatory diseases currently afflicting patients.

SFA001 has been licensed by Temple University to SFA Therapeutics in
Jenkintown, PA.