Pursuant to such agreement, Nostrum will in-license thrombolytics from IMTECH for clinical development and worldwide commercialisation.
Nostrum president Nirmal Mulye said that the new thrombolytics are clot specific plasminogen activator proteins, and each one of these molecules has a different value-added properties such as longer half-life in blood circulation and re-occlusion prevention during heart attack.
"Moreover, these properties of the molecules will help to effectively mitigate a number of systemic side effects, such as bleeding," Mulye said.
IMTECH director Girish Sahni said that his group at IMTECH had been working for a very long time to come up with an approach that would resolve the issue of blood vessel re-occlusion after thrombolytics treatment.
"I am glad that one of our new thrombolytic molecules has shown that promise in the laboratory experiments," Sahni said.
Nostrum will develop these new thrombolytics in association with one of its affiliates, Symmetrix Biotech (Symmetrix), which is based in Mumbai, India.
Symmetrix director and CEO Yatindra Prashar said that although these new thrombolytics are at a very early stage of development, based on their experience with the Clot Specific Streptokinase (CSSK) development, especially the successful efficacy studies in monkeys, these new molecules that are being licensed by Nostrum have the potential to develop into top selling drugs for thrombolytic treatment not only during heart attack but also stroke because of the greatly reduced risk of bleeding since these thrombolytics protect blood fibrinogen levels during the treatment.
Nostrum had earlier licensed CSSK in July 2006 from IMTECH.