Takeda Joins the HRP Initiative to Discover Biomarkers of High-Risk Atherosclerotic Plaque04/01/2008
Collaborative venture is focused on identifying individuals at high risk of heart attack or stroke to facilitate drug development and enabling the rapid discovery and development of new treatments that can prevent the first event. BG Medicine, on behalf of the HRP Initiative, today announced that Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (“Takeda”) has joined BG Medicine, Merck, AstraZeneca, and Philips as the newest member of the Initiative. The HRP Initiative is a pre-competitive industry collaboration that is focused on discovering and developing novel blood tests and imaging methods to find individuals with high-risk plaque disease before the occurrence of the first cardiovascular event. Atherosclerotic plaque is the underlying cause of most heart attacks and strokes, which together are the most prevalent causes of morbidity and mortality in the Western world and increasingly across the globe. Scientific evidence gathered over the past decade has pointed to a two-phase development of atherosclerotic vascular disease. The first phase which starts in early adulthood and continues throughout life is characterized by gradual plaque build-up. Plasma cholesterol levels and other risk factors play an important role in rate of plaque build-up. The second phase, which occurs in some individuals, is characterized by local inflammation and weakening of certain plaque segments which may lead to rupture of the plaque, which can result in an acute heart-attack or stroke. There are currently no practical means to identify who carries this often deadly form of disease, and thus the focus of the HRP Initiative on finding ways to reliably identify these individuals through imaging or blood tests before the first event will enable the development of novel treatments and would have a major impact on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. “The HRP initiative continues to gain momentum as illustrated by Takeda joining forces with Merck, AstraZeneca, Philips and BG Medicine” said Valentin Fuster, M.D., Ph.D., a leading international cardiologist and chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board for the HRP Initiative and principal investigator of the HRP BioImage Study. “Recent reports on the limitations of measuring cholesterol as a risk predictor underscore the importance of the HRP initiative to discover and develop novel imaging and blood biomarkers of actual disease.” In addition to his work with the HRP Initiative, Dr. Fuster serves as director of the Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute and the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Cardiovascular Health and Director of Mount Sinai Heart Hospital. “With its recently initiated BioImage study, a 6,000-patient 3-year prospective cardiovascular outcome study, and through collaboration with major epidemiological research projects such as Framingham and the Copenhagen Heart Study, the HRP initiative is uniquely positioned for discovery as well as validation of biomarkers of atherosclerotic disease.” said Dr. Masaomi Miyamoto, General Manager of Takeda’s Pharmaceutical Development Division. “By joining the HRP initiative, Takeda hopes to facilitate the development of such markers to help doctors diagnose patients earlier and more accurately in order to prevent atherosclerosis-related events and to develop novel more effective treatments.” The HRP Initiative collaborator companies share responsibility for the overall planning and governance of the HRP research activities; they also provide funding for the Initiative in exchange for certain rights to project data, materials and other intellectual property. About the High-Risk Plaque Initiative About BG Medicine About Takeda |