Soyeon Bio Acquires Global Rights to ORM-12741 (DB105), a Novel Alpha-2C Adrenergic Receptor Antagonist for Alzheimer’s Disease

Artery New Medicine (WeChat ID: biobeat1) has learned that Suoyuan Biomedicine, a leader in precision medicine, announced today that it has obtained the license for ORM-12741, a new drug for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (senile dementia), from Finland’s Orion Corporation. Suoyuan Biomedicine has acquired global rights to the development, manufacturing, and commercialization of ORM-12741.

ORM-12741 is a selective, potent, and novel antagonist targeting the alpha-2C adrenergic receptor (AR), which may be effective in treating psychiatric disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and depression. To date, more than 540 patients have received ORM-12741 across 11 clinical studies, confirming its favorable safety and tolerability profile. Results from a Phase IIa study of ORM-12741 were presented at the 65th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). The findings indicated that memory scores improved by 4% in patients treated with ORM-12741 after 12 weeks, whereas they declined by 33% in the placebo group. The beneficial effects of ORM-12741 on episodic memory were particularly pronounced. These clinical trials have generated a substantial amount of highly valuable data, laying a solid foundation for Suoyuan Biomedicine’s subsequent discovery of biomarkers.

Dr. Michael Haller, Chief Business Officer of Suoyuan Biomedicine, stated, “With the licensing of ORM-12741 (designated as DB105 by Suoyuan Biomedicine), we now have four innovative drug candidates in late-stage clinical development in the fields of oncology and neurology. We will continue to expand our product pipeline in these two important therapeutic areas. Leveraging Suoyuan Biomedicine’s proprietary biomarker technology, we have advanced our first innovative drug, DB102, into an international, multicenter Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of first-line diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).”

Dr. Luo Wen, Chairman of Suoyuan Biomedicine, stated, “Currently, most new drug programs for Alzheimer’s disease focus on beta-amyloid. DB105 targets a novel mechanism—the alpha-2C adrenergic receptor (AR). Despite substantial efforts by the pharmaceutical industry in Alzheimer’s drug development, the majority of clinical trials have ended in failure. We believe that Suoyuan Biomedicine can leverage its proprietary biomarker platform to develop biomarkers correlated with the efficacy of DB105, thereby providing breakthrough therapeutic solutions through precision medicine to address this unmet clinical need.”

Suoyuan Biomedicine is a leading precision medicine company that develops novel first-in-class drugs through an innovative, rapid, and efficient model. The company licenses new drug candidates from major international pharmaceutical companies—those that have demonstrated safety in late-stage clinical trials and shown efficacy in subsets of patients—and leverages its proprietary biomarker platform to identify predictive biomarkers from residual clinical samples.

By leveraging these newly discovered biomarkers as companion diagnostics to screen patients, Suoyuan Biomedicine can re-initiate clinical trials in sensitive patient populations, thereby optimizing efficacy, safety, and tolerability, increasing the success rate of new drug development, and ultimately achieving the goal of developing innovative drugs at lower costs and in shorter timeframes.

Suoyuan Biomedicine currently holds global rights to four innovative drug candidates—DB102, DB103, DB104, and DB105—that have been developed to late-stage clinical trials, all of which are first-in-class drugs.

Among them, DB102 (enzastaurin), originally developed by Eli Lilly and Company, is currently undergoing Phase III clinical trials in China and the United States for the treatment of previously untreated high-risk diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), while global clinical trials for its use in treating glioblastoma (GBM) are being prepared.

DB103 (pomaglumetad), originally developed by Eli Lilly and Company for the treatment of schizophrenia, received approval from China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) at the end of 2018 for its international multicenter clinical trials, and its Phase Ib clinical trial has been successfully initiated. DB104 (liafensine) is an antidepressant drug acquired from ARMI/BMS. DB105 was originally an innovative drug developed by Finland’s Orion Corporation for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.