ONO-5046 (Ono Pharmaceutical).
ONO-5046 (sivelestat) is a competitive inhibitor of human neutrophil elastase from Ono Pharmaceutical, which is awaiting FDA approval for the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis and idiopathic interstitial pneumonia [349488]. An NDA was filed in Japan in September 1998 [299667]. It is in phase II trials for the treatment of acute circulatory failure [171678]. It is also being investigated as a potential treatment of arthritis [230100]. In animal models of asthma, sivelestat decreased the level of hemorrhage and protein extravasation into the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid after the administration of a 40 mg/kg injection of phorbol myristate acetate [188186]. The compound also inhibited the growth of human lung cancer cell lines in SCID mice [269736]. Sivelestat inhibits gastric lesion formation in rats subjected to water immersion restraint stress. Low oral bioavailability in vivo is due to extensive hepatic first-pass metabolism. Endotoxin-induced lung injury in rabbits was attenuated by pretreatment with sivelestat [276401]. In 1996, analysts at Yamaichi estimated sivelestat would be launched in Japan between 1998/9 and peak annual sales would be less than 5 billion yen [216018].
Pradella
L
L
Zambon Group SpA, Bresso, Milan, Italy. lorenzo.pradella@zambongroup.com