Medinox, Inc. appoints 1998 Nobel Prize winner, Ferid Murad, to its Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Murad's discovery of the importance of nitric oxide (NO) in humans is at the core of Medinox's NO-neutralizing pharmaceutical technologies.
SAN DIEGO, CA. October 18, 1999 -- Medinox, Inc. has announced the appointment of Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D. to its Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Murad is a co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in discovering nitric oxide's (NO) role as a signaling molecule in humans.
Dr. Murad is currently a Professor and Chairman in the Department of Integrative Biology, Pharmacology and Physiology at the University of Texas-Houston Medical School. Medinox is developing innovative NO-neutralizing pharmaceutical technologies to treat diseases and conditions associated with the overproduction of NO.
"Dr. Murad's participation on our Scientific Advisory Board is an important validation of Medinox's NO-neutralizing technologies," said Monte Lai, Ph.D., Medinox's President and CEO. "We are delighted that a scientist of such distinction as Dr. Murad has joined our team." "I am very happy to be associated with the leading company in NO-neutralizer development," said Dr. Murad. "I look forward to assisting Medinox in its endeavor to develop truly innovative new medicines." Dr. Murad, along with Drs. Robert Furchgott and Louis Ignarro, was awarded the Nobel Prize for discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system. Dr. Murad analyzed how nitroglycerin and related vasodilating compounds act. In 1977, he discovered that these compounds release nitric oxide, which relax smooth muscle cells. However, later research showed that NO can be produced in excessive amounts, which leads to sometimes fatal disease pathologies. Medinox is developing a broad NO neutralizer technology platform to address a wide variety of unmet medical conditions involving the overproduction of NO that affect millions of Americans. These conditions include intradialytic hypotension, allograft rejection, stroke, neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, and other chronic inflammatory diseases. The key to Medinox's unique NO neutralizing technology is that it removes excess, pathology-causing NO while preserving the low level of production needed to maintain normal body functions. The company's proprietary small-molecule NO neutralizers bind NO very tightly and with great specificity, preventing the bound NO from participating in processes that lead to disease pathology. This "neutralizer" approach to the elimination of excess NO is potentially more effective as a therapeutic medicine than enzyme inhibitors, which block NO synthesis. In September of this year, Medinox began a Phase I/II clinical trial for its NOX-100 compound at the University of California, San Diego. The trial focuses on treating NO overproduction during intradialytic hypotension, the most significant complication of routine hemodialysis in end-stage renal disease patients. This condition affects approximately 50,000 hemodialysis patients in the United States. Medinox's broad intellectual property estate consists of 10 issued US patents and numerous pending US and foreign patents. Medinox, a privately-held pharmaceutical company headquartered in San Diego, was founded in 1995. To date, the company has raised over $13 million in private equity financing. Medinox currently has twenty employees, nine of whom are Ph.D.s.