New Hope: Research Project MiVaKa
New Hope: Research Project on Vascular Calcifications receives Funds from NRW and EU
Dortmund, March 2019++++
Starting from a recently identified endogenous inhibitor of vascular calcifications, Taros Drug Discovery scientists will be working in close collaboration with the Lead Discovery Center (LDC) in Dortmund and the Institute for Molecular Cardiovascular Research (IMCAR) established at the RWTH Aachen University to develop peptidomimetic medicines for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of vascular calcifications. The MiVaKa (Mimetics for the prevention and therapy of vascular calcification to minimise cardiovascular diseases) project has received approx. 2 million euros from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the EU over the next three years.
Age-related reduction in the filtration performance of the kidney leads to accumulation of calcium and phosphate in vascular walls, reducing its elasticity and favouring secondary diseases such as hypertension and tachycardia. As a result, patients may suffer from vascular complications, stroke and heart attack. A disease modifying treatment of vascular calcifications is currently not available and urgently needed.
About Taros Chemicals
Taros is a privately owned discovery chemistry company, working with global pharmaceutical, biotech and chemical companies since 1999. Alongside our performance chemicals and material science division, Taros’ drug discovery mission is to create drug candidates as potential new medicines. Taros has a strong scientific track record on many biomolecular targets in all main therapeutic areas and thereby adding considerable value to collaborations from target validation and hit identification to lead generation and optimization. Taros’ core expertise ranges from custom synthesis and process development to modern medicinal and computational chemistry, as well as compound library design and production.
Taros was heading the chemistry efforts of the EUR 196 million funded European Lead Factory (2013-2018) and is currently heading its EUR 36.5 million funded continuation (2019-2022). Moreover, Taros is deeply engaged in other research alliances like the EUR 11 million funded Drug Discovery Hub Dortmund.
Press Contact:
Youri R. Mesmoudi, Executive Vice President, e-mail: innovation |at| taros.de
Acknowledgement of support
This project is funded by the European Union within the framework of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Drug Discovery
Taros’ international and multidisciplinary team has more than 180 years of pharmaceutical R&D experience. Collectively as a team, we worked on more than 120 biomolecular…
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