Arexis’ SCCE project receives VINNOVA grant

GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN – 21 February 2005 – The Gothenburg-based drug development company Arexis AB announced today that it has received a grant totalling SEK 6.4 million from the Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems, VINNOVA

The project will evaluate the enzyme SCCE (Stratum Corneum Chymotryptic Enzyme) as target molecule for skin disorders, in order to develop new treatments for skin disease. Already, there is strong scientific evidence that SCCE plays a role in diseases such as atopic dermatitis and Netherton’s syndrome. ”The VINNOVA grant further underlines the potential in our SCCE program as well as our rewarding collaboration with Professor Torbjörn Egelrud, Umeå University, and Atomos AB”, says Dr. Lennart Hansson, CEO at Arexis. The project was ranked in the highest category by VINNOVA as having ”high scientific and market potential” and is part of a collaboration with Prof. Egelrud at Umeå University and Atomos AB. “The grant from VINNOVA, which will be distributed over a three-year period, will contribute significantly to Arexis’ dermatology program and help us to broaden our efforts to develop new and more effective treatments”, says Dr. Göran Leonardsson, Project Leader at Arexis. Prof. Egelrud is an authority in dermatological research and a world-leading expert on SCCE, which he originally discovered in the early 1990s. Atomos AB, with its principal investigator Marcel Linschoten, is expert in computer aided drug design, especially in the fields of proteases and protease inhibitors. Arexis has the know-how and resources to perform all steps of the preclinical development program, including validation of candidate substances in its unique in vivo pharmacology models.