Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is a form of brain hemorrhage responsible for 10 percent of all strokes. It affects about 90,000 people in North America each year, more than half of whom either die or are disabled. Anywhere from one-quarter to 44 percent of those who survive have recurring ICH. The annual economic burden of ICH is estimated at $300 million to Canada and $6 billion to the United States. Apart from treating hypertension, which is one of the causes of ICH, there is currently no way to prevent recurrent ICH.
Dr. Xiao-Yan Wen, director of the Zebrafish Centre for Advanced Drug Discovery (ZCADD) and his team at St. Michael’s Hospital, used genomics-driven research tools to identify several existing drugs that are already approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that have shown the ability to prevent ICH in zebrafish models. Edge Therapeutics partnered with Dr. Wen in this project, to perform preclinical studies on the most potent anti-ICH molecules known as EZF-0100 for treatment of ICH and brain microhemorrhages (BMH). The project was awarded $5.9 million.
