Scios And Medtronic To Develop Heart Failure Treatment

. has announced its entry into a research collaboration with Medtronic, Inc. to study the effects of Scios’ investigational agent Natrecor (nesiritide) in combination with Medtronic’s heart failure devices and implantable infusion systems.

“We are excited to establish this collaboration as both Scios and Medtronic have a shared commitment to the diagnosis and management of heart failure in all of its manifestations,” said Scios Chief Scientific Officer George F. Schreiner, M.D., Ph.D. “This research effort between the two companies explores the potential for new heart failure treatments combining Natrecor’s unique therapeutic properties with Medtronic’s approach to the treatment of heart failure.”

In the first of a planned program of pilot clinical studies, the hemodynamic and clinical effects of Natrecor, including the effects on spontaneous activity and controlled exercise tolerance, will be evaluated using information collected by Medtronic’s Chronicle Implantable Hemodynamic Monitor (IHM) both during and after infusions of Natrecor.

The pilot feasibility study is expected to begin this quarter at the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm.

Both Natrecor and the Chronicle IHM are currently under clinical investigation in the United States.

Natrecor is currently being reviewed by the U.S. FDA as a potential treatment for acute CHF. If approved for marketing by the FDA, Natrecor would be the first new treatment available for acute CHF in over a decade.

The Chronicle system is being studied in a worldwide multicenter clinical trial.

Medtronic expects to file for U.S. and European marketing approvals for this system by the end of this year.

Scios is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel treatments for cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases.

The company’s disease-based technology platform integrates expertise in protein biology with combinatorial and medicinal chemistry to identify novel targets and rationally design large and small-molecule compounds to treat cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases, two of the world’s leading unmet medical needs.