WINNIPEG cardiovascular drug discovery company Medicure Inc. has acquired the rights to a novel technology that could play a role in lowering cholesterol levels.

Medicure has secured the worldwide rights to the technology from the University of Manitoba and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. The research, led by U of M chemists Jim Jamieson and Gro Thorne-Tjomsland, is focused on the development of novel lipid lowering therapeutics that act on the liver's mechanism for the production and removal of very low density lipoproteins (VLDL).

Medicure CEO Albert Friesen said in the past methods to combat high cholesterol levels have concentrated on low density lipoproteins (LDL), but it is now believed that VLDL have a lot to do with developing heart disease because when they are released into the blood stream they are converted to LDL.

Medicure will pay a nominal upfront fee to the U of M and the University of Ottawa and it has made a commitment to continue to fund research.

"This is very exciting for a couple of reasons," Friesen said in a telephone interview from New York, where he is meeting with biotech industry investors. "For one thing, Jim Jamieson does very high quality work and there is a huge market for this kind of treatment."

Friesen said the interest in LDL and VLDL is illustrated by the fact pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. paid $1.3 billion US a little more than a year ago for Esperion Therapeutics Inc., a biopharmaceutical company based in Ann Arbour, Mich., focused on the development of high density lipoprotein (HDL) targeted therapies for the treatment of cardiovascular disease.

In addition to Friesen's contact with Jamieson, Medicure also has had dealings in the past with the U of O in that it is one of the patient enrolment sites for other Medicure clinical trials.

"This is an important announcement for the company," Medicure's head of communications Don Bain said yesterday. "The market for cholesterol drugs is enormous, even when you are looking at a small slice of a billion dollar pie."

Cholesterol lowering therapy represent the world's largest pharmaceutical market, generating worldwide revenue of $22 billion US in 2002, according to a Medicure news release.

Although it won't mean much money to the U of M at this point, if the drug does get into clinical trial and is developed to the point it can be made commercially available, the university will receive royalty payments.

The announcement comes at a time when Medicure's stock price has been slumping along with the biotech industry in general. But Medicure has a couple of phase II and phase III clinical trials in the works, with results expected in the coming months.

Medicure's main drug is focusing on the treatment of heart tissue damage as a result of some kind of cardiac activity like an angioplasty or bypass surgery. It is also in clinical trials on a drug that is designed to reduce high blood pressure among diabetes patients.

Medicure's shares closed unchanged yesterday at 88 cents.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca