Cardiol Therapeutics recently announced positive data on the use of CRD-38 (cannabidiol) in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, highlighting that it improved cardiac function and reduced cardiac hypertrophy, remodeling, inflammation, and cell death. The data indicates that CRD-38 potentially fills an unmet need in the heart failure (HF) space as it has an alternate mechanism of action to current marketed therapies, says GlobalData.
CRD-38 acts as an agonist to cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2. The cannabidiol moiety of the drug shows anti-inflammatory activity and the organic nitrates exhibit a direct relaxant effect on vascular smooth muscles, which leads to dilation of coronary vessels, improves oxygen supply to the myocardium, and elicits therapeutic activity. The journal included results from multiple models of HF. In a mouse model of HF, subcutaneous administration of CRD-38 resulted in reduced cardiac fibrosis and hypertrophy, and improved ejection fraction and cardiac output.
Kajal Jaddoo, Senior Pharma Analyst at GlobalData, comments, “Key opinion leaders (KOLs) interviewed by GlobalData have emphasised that physicians would be more open to subcutaneous therapies because they are not looking to add another pill to patients’ treatment regimens.”
According to GlobalData’s Pharma Intelligence Center Drug Database, Cardiol has one other drug in active development, CardiolRx (cannabidiol 1) in Phase II for multiple indications.
Jaddoo concludes, “The aging global population and the prolongation of the lives of cardiac patients by modern therapeutic innovations has led to increased prevalence of HF. Moreover, several diseases such as hypertension, obesity, and diabetes greatly increase the risk for HF. This illustrates how vital, and potentially lucrative, the HF arena is for drug discovery.”