Pharmaceutical company i-Cordis has received $1.5 million through a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
I-Cordis will use the grant to develop a treatment for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. I-Cordis used an earlier grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute on rodent studies that showed pegydone — which is derived from pirfenidone, an FDA-approved pulmonary fibrosis medication that has been studied in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction — as a possible treatment for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, according to a Sept. 1 i-Cordis news release.
"The novelty of pegydone resides not only in its optimized structural design but also in its cardioprotective mechanism of action," said Jennifer Riggs, PhD, head of medicinal chemistry at i-Cordis. "In preclinical models, pegydone has demonstrated better tolerability and increased cardioprotective effects when compared to pirfenidone. We are very excited about pegydone as a resolution therapy for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction."