Biopeutics Co., Ltd.

EUBEATLIN^R is the registered trademark of Biopeutics for a new bridging drug in heart transplantation.   

An estimated 4.8 million Americans have congestive heart failure (CHF). Its increasing prevalence, with resulting hospitalizations and deaths have made CHF a major chronic condition in the United States.  Each year, there are an estimated 400,000 new cases.  The primary cardiac abnormality in heart failure is a loss of functioning myocardium that leads to reduced left-ventricular function. Despite substantial benefits from currently available inotropic, diuretic and vasodilator medications, end-stage congestive heart failure is characterized by a very high death rate, often in excess of 50% within a year, usually due to progressive cardiac dysfunction. Heart transplantation has become a successful therapy for patients with end-stage congestive heart failure.  It improves quality of life and longevity; however, not enough donor hearts are available for the estimated 2,486 candidates who are awaiting transplantation in the United States as of April 2007.  Roughly 70% of these people can expect to wait more than 6 months to undergo transplant.  Based on 2005 statistics, an estimated 15% of waiting candidates will die each year.

Patients awaiting cardiac transplantation often suffer from severe dyspnea and extreme fatigue at rest despite optimized treatment with oral medications, making the use of continuous intravenous drug therapy necessary for circulatory support and to prolong survival to transplant (also referred to as bridging to transplantation).  While most of the experience with continuous inotropic support has been with hospitalized patients, outpatient treatment using continuous infusions has the potential to improve patient comfort and decrease hospitalization and costs. It is notable that the re-admission rate due to worsening of CHF in transplant candidates receiving low-dose inotropic support with dobutamine or milrinone is high at 66%.

EUBEATLIN^R is a naturally occurring compound and it has potent pulmonary and systemic vasodilator actions and is an important endogenous regulator, which may serve to maintain blood flow to vital organs such as the kidney. It also has various ancillary properties such as inhibition of platelet adhesion and induction of cell proliferation.  Specifically, by virtue of its capillary neoangiogenic effect, exogenously-administered EUBEATLIN^R is postulated to prolong survival to cardiac transplant.