Cortendo gains $11M for late-stage Cushing’s study

Posted on October 31, 2014 by MaryO

Cortendo is coming to America. Founded in Sweden, the little biotech has a new CEO who’s building the executive team in the Philadelphia area. And he’s dropping plans for a listing on the Oslo exchange in favor of a U.S. IPO after raising $11 million in bridge financing.

Cortendo CEO Matthew Pauls

The big idea at Cortendo is to take an existing drug–ketoconazole, which is used off-label for Cushing’s disease–and tinker with it to make it safer and more effective. HealthCap, the Third Swedish National Pension Fund (“AP3”), Storebrand and Arctic Fund Management are putting up the venture round. And their money is funding an on-going Phase III study designed to make their case with the FDA.

“It is a nice bridge to the U.S. which also allows us from funding perspective to drive that critically important Phase III to closure,” says CEO Matthew Pauls, an ex-Shire ($SHPG) and Insmed exec from the commercial side of the industry who joined the company a couple of months ago.

Cushing’s is characterized by elevated levels of cortisol, which trigger a host of serious and potentially lethal side effects. The new drug–dubbed COR-003–is designed to hit key enzymes in the cortisol synthesis pathway, using a more targeted segment of ketoconazole.

“We took basically the better half of the molecule and are using it explicitly for Cushing’s syndrome,” says the CEO. Now Cortendo–which is run by a core team of 6, which Pauls plans to expand–will drive for final late-stage data in 2017, setting up a prospective application with the FDA that could allow the company to proceed with plans to create its own commercial operations.

There are about 20,000 to 25,000 Cushing’s patients in the U.S., adds Pauls, with maybe 30,000 to 40,000 in Europe. About half of those patients can expect surgery to address the disease, with the rest candidates for medicinal therapies.

The U.S. represents the company’s largest market opportunity, says Pauls. So it makes sense to drop the Oslo listing in favor of a U.S. exchange. Exactly when that filing could come and where, he adds, hasn’t been determined yet.

– here’s the release

From http://www.fiercebiotech.com/story/little-cortendo-gains-11m-late-stage-cushings-study-hatches-us-ipo-plans/2014-10-30

Filed under: Clinical trials, Cushing's, Rare Diseases | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Rare neuroendocrine tumours may be misdiagnosed as Cushing’s disease

Posted on October 31, 2014 by MaryO

By Eleanor McDermid, Senior medwireNews Reporter

Ectopic tumours secreting corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) are very rare in children and can result in a misdiagnosis of Cushing’s disease (CD), say researchers.

Three of the patients in the reported case series had pituitary hyperplasia and underwent transsphenoidal surgery for apparent CD before the tumour that was actually causing their symptoms was located. The hyperplasia was probably caused by release of CRH from the ectopic tumour, which stimulated the pituitary gland, giving the impression of an ACTH-secreting pituitary adenoma, explain Maya Lodish (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA) and study co-authors.

These three patients were part of a series of seven, which Lodish et al describe as “a relatively large number of patients, considering the infrequency of this disease.”

The patients were aged between 1.8 and 21.3 years. Three had neuroendocrine tumours located in the pancreas ranging in size from 1.4 to 7.0 cm, two had thymic carcinoids ranging from 6.0 mm to 11.5 cm, one patient had a 12.0 cm tumour in the liver and one had a 1.3 cm bronchogenic carcinoid tumour of the right pulmonary lobe.

Four of the patients had metastatic disease and, during up to 57 months of follow-up, three died of metastatic disease or associated complications and two patients had recurrent disease.

“Our series demonstrates that these are aggressive tumors with a high mortality rate,” write the researchers in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. “It is important to follow the appropriate work up, regarding both biochemical and imaging tests, which can lead to the correct diagnosis and to the most beneficial therapeutic approach.”

The team found the CRH stimulation test to be helpful, noting, for example, that none of the patients had a rise in cortisol that was consistent with CD, with all patients showing smaller responses ranging from 2% to 15%. Likewise, just one patient had an ACTH rise higher than 35% on CRH administration, and four patients had a “flat” response, which has previously been associated with ectopic neuroendocrine tumours.

Of note, six patients had normal or high plasma CRH levels, despite all having high cortisol levels, which would be expected to result in undetectable plasma CRH due to negative feedback, implying another source of CRH production. Five patients had blunted diurnal variation of both cortisol and ACTH levels consistent with Cushing’s syndrome.

The patients also underwent a variety of imaging procedures to identify the source of ACTH/CRH production, some of which, such as octreotide scans, are specialist and not available in most hospitals, the researchers note, potentially contributing to inappropriate diagnosis and management.

From http://www.news-medical.net/news/20141030/Rare-neuroendocrine-tumours-may-be-misdiagnosed-as-Cushinge28099s-disease.aspx

Filed under: Cushing's, pituitary, Rare Diseases | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

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