Sex drug could transform TransTech - The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area:

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The drug, known now as TTP-515, was developed to treat Yet it has also shown significant promise in early clinical trials in treating a medical condition that affect as much as 40 percent of the worldwidsefemale population. Several pharmaceutical companies are racing to produce thefirstt so-called “female Viagra,” which has a potentiakl market north of $4 billion “Right now, we have nothing, to offer these If this drug succeeds in further clinical trials, they are going to make a says Dr.
Jim Pfaus, an experf in the neurobiology of sexuakl behavior at Concordia Universityin Montreal, who assessed the resultzs of TTP-515 in animal tests he “The world will know about TransTech Pharma.” In many TransTech’s reputation in the biotech worls is well established. It has attracted more than $300 millionm in recent years in deals and collaborations with pharmaz giants suchas , Merck and for its potential drugzs for Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and But a drug that could possibly stimulate a woman’se interest in initiating sex? TransTech’s brand, as Pfaus speculates, would surely Dr.
Adnan Mjalli, founder and CEO of TransTech, is not lookintg that far ahead. Not yet. At the moment, he is enamoredd with the science of this new molecule which appears capable of dual curtailing the desire to eat whild augmenting the desire in women forsexual “We did not set out to find this drug,” Mjalli “We knew the pathways in the brain we were targetinyg were important for obesity, and perhapsd also for sexual dysfunction, but we weren’ft sure. The data has been quitre profound and apleasant surprise.
” The locus of this actioh takes place in the hypothalamus, a region of the brainm that hosts a variety of bodily There is a receptor in the cells called melanocortin that tells us to eat. That receptodr is balanced by two outside One protein, let’s call it X, turn s off the melanocortin and tells us when to stop eating. Anothefr protein, let’s call it Y, flips the switch on melanocortinb and tells us tokeep eating. In obese people, TransTech scientistz speculate that they have far too much of the Y and therefore continue eating long after they shoulfdbe full.
Thus, TransTech developed a molecule that seek to inhibit the action ofthe keep-eatinhg Y molecule, while allowing the melanocortin and stop-eating X molecule to balancre the state of hunger and food intake. which employs about 120 peoplein , has been testing this drug in clinicakl trials at 10 sites acrosss the country. Early indications are that it is having an impac t on weight loss in obese Then another finding Many of the womenh taking the drug reported an increase insexual desire, and in an increase where there was none before.
As Mjalli suggested, this wasn’yt a complete surprise; previous research by otherr scientists established the connection betweehn melanocortin and sex drive inthe hypothalamus. To be sure of the TransTech shipped TTP-515 to Pfaus’ lab in Montreak for testing in female rats whose ovariess hadbeen removed. those rats should have had no interest ininitiating sex. But after ingesting the new drug, they were positively amorous. Pfaus explains: “In the rat sex doesn’t happen until the femalde says yes. When they are in the female goes to the male and lets him know she is Then she does a juvenile Sheruns away.
The male then she allows herself to be caughyt andcopulation begins. But she is in control of That’s an important point about TTP-515, Pfausd stresses. The drug isn’t just about arousal, whicn is essentially what Viagra, Cialis and Levitrza (with annual sales in the by the way) do for men. Women can be but still not be interestedd inhaving sex. Desire is much tougher to get at. Yet TTP-515r in female rats without ovariee seemed to bridgethat gap.
“What we observed was a whopping increase in says Pfaus, who told TransTecj researchers that the outcome was superior to anythinfg he had ever seen before in drugs tryinh to address the same He’s been doing this kind of researcg for more than a decade. Pfaus says that , a New Jersey-basexd biotech company, developed a drug similar to TTP-5156 in recent years that also shower great promise in treating femalesexual dysfunction. the drug, which introduced a synthetic form of melanocortin into the tended to increaseblood pressure.
FDA safetgy concerns essentially derailed the drug frommoving “TransTech will have to collect a lot of safetuy data, and they are already doing this with obese Pfaus says. “But the big differenced is that the TransTech drug seems to enable natural melanocortin to work asit should. That makew it a very novel treatment.” To date, TransTech has seen no elevatio of blood pressure in obese women takingb their drug inclinical trials. Calling it “a huge Pfaus says that German drug maketr Boehringer Ingleheim is furtheer along than TransTech in its development of a drug for femalesexualk dysfunction.
He says that drug, called flibabserin, works differentlyt than TTP-515, and that thered likely is room enough in the worldwide markert forboth — just as there are threes drugs to treat male erectile In years past, there has been some debate abouft the validity of female sexua dysfunction and whether it needs to be addressefd at all. Obese women tend not to feel very theargument goes, nor do women lockeds in loveless relationships. Is a so-called lifestyl e drug really needed to solve thes e problems when perhaps diet or divorcs might be aquicker fix?
Stephen senior vice president for TransTech, says that such questions are beingv overtaken by a different reality — that femalee sexual dysfunction spans a wide range of causes, and that sexuaol health and health in general are inextricably linked. Mental general well being and even lifespan are often tied tosexuakl health.