CoDa Therapeutics' NEXAGON® Wound Healing Gel Named to Windhover's 'Top 10 HOT SPACE Projects to Watch'

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- CoDa Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of therapeutics for wound care, tissue repair, and inflammation, today announced that its wound healing gel, NEXAGON®, has been named one of Windhover Therapeutic Area Partnership's "Top HOT SPACE Projects to Watch." This list handpicked by Windhover and independent consultants, represents the top 10 product candidates that are available for partnering in ophthalmology, orphan diseases, women's health, and other categories.  

Past Windhover Top 10 candidates have signed a total potential value of $17 billion in acquisitions and alliances.

NEXAGON was chosen for inclusion by Windhover and Catharine Staughton, a founder of Scisive Consulting, LP, a professional and management consulting company dedicated to serving the medical and life sciences industries. The selection followed review of CoDa Therapeutics' technology and positive results from its Phase 2 Study of NEXAGON in patients with chronic venous leg ulcers. In this randomized, vehicle-controlled, double-blind study, NEXAGON was shown to be safe and tolerable, and showed a statistically significant 5-fold improvement over vehicle in the endpoint of complete healing, with just three doses of drug administered over 4 weeks. NEXAGON also demonstrated a clinically meaningful improvement in wound surface area reduction that was statistically significant for ulcer sizes representing the bulk of the market with a 71% reduction in wound size at 4 weeks.

Bradford Duft, President and CEO of CoDa said, "We are very pleased to be named to Windhover's prestigious list of top 10 HOT SPACE product candidates. In prior years, this list included many of today's biopharmaceutical industry leaders and partnered products. With our upcoming participation in Windhover's Therapeutic Area Partnership conference, the timing of this distinction is ideal as we continue to discuss opportunities for NEXAGON with a range of companies, and look forward to further discussion with fellow conference attendees."

Ms. Staughton said, "In choosing the 'Top 10 HOT SPACE Projects to Watch,' we were determined to select significant products outside the usual therapeutic areas, such as cardiovascular or oncology. NEXAGON wound healing gel has demonstrated the potential to address a major unmet medical need in wound care that we believe will garner appreciable attention at the Windhover Therapeutic Area Partnerships meeting."

Along with inclusion in the "Top 10 HOT SPACE Projects to Watch" list, CoDa Therapeutics will be attending the Windhover Therapeutic Area Partnerships meeting, which will be held November 2-4, 2010 at the Westin Copley Place in Boston, MA.  More information on the meeting can be found at www.tapartnerships.com.

About CoDa Therapeutics Inc.

CoDa Therapeutics is a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on developing novel targeted therapies that address major unmet medical needs in inflammation, wound-healing and tissue repair.  The company is pioneering a new field of science: gap junction modulation, using a new class of therapeutics that can modulate wound responses and reduce inflammation. CoDa has two open INDs and has completed one Phase 2 and two Phase 1 clinical trials in skin and eye, where NEXAGON® was shown to be safe and tolerable following administration to over 290 wounds on more than 160 subjects.  CoDa's technology, which can be conveniently applied topically, been shown to work across a wide variety of wound and inflammatory settings and conditions.  CoDa presently has issued patents in the US, Europe and elsewhere, and pending applications in more than a dozen other patent families directed to methods and compositions for the treatment of acute wounds, chronic wounds, scarring, abnormal scarring, inflammation and pain, fibrosis, surgical adhesions, and orthopedic procedures, as well as combination therapies and improved medical devices. For further information, please visit www.codatherapeutics.com.

About NEXAGON®

The active ingredient in NEXAGON®, which has been shown to work across a wide variety of tissues, is CODA001, a natural, unmodified antisense oligonucleotide that down-regulates the key gap junction protein connexin43 to dampen inflammatory responses and enhance healing.  Data shows that for optimal healing connexin43 is normally dialed-down at the edges of acute wounds (i.e., wounds that will heal normally).  Conversely, other company data demonstrate that connexin43 is wrongly up-regulated at the edge of chronic wounds (i.e., wounds that are slow or difficult to heal such as venous and diabetic ulcers).  CoDa believes that one can better target available medical options and design more effective wound-healing alternatives by devising a therapeutic approach based on biological mechanisms naturally at work or conversely, at fault, in a given situation. The answer is thought to lie in connexin43, which can be seen as a "master switch" in wound healing that is temporarily turned "off" for superior healing of acute wounds, and when left "on" can lead to the unwanted inflammation and/or stalled healing characteristic of chronic wounds.

About Scisive Consulting, LP

Scisive Consulting, LP, is provides management consulting services for healthcare businesses. It offers strategy development services for innovation sourcing, new market entry, portfolio rationalization, life-cycle management, product line and therapeutic area diversification, clinical development and commercialization, pricing, marketing channels and product launches, and transformational acquisitions projects. The company also provides opportunity assessment services in the areas of novel products; novel uses; line extensions; and new markets, segments, and patient groups. In addition, it offers corporate development services in the areas of new product searches; merger, acquisition, and divestiture searches; investment opportunities; product and market due diligence; and valuations. Scisive Consulting, LP is based in New York, New York with locations in San Diego and London.

About Windhover

Windhover Information Inc., an Elsevier company, has provided analysis of the healthcare industry to decision-makers at all levels since the founding of its flagship publication, IN VIVO: The Business & Medicine Report, in 1983.  Windhover provides its information and analysis in many formats, including print, electronic databases, international conferences and webinars.  For more on the company's products and services, please see www.windhover.com.

SOURCE CoDa Therapeutics, Inc.