Cardiovascular diseases are the leading causes of death in the United States. Using current guideline-based therapy, heart failure has a US prevalence of 5.4 million Americans and an incidence of 690,000 new cases per year. Most of these patients will progress to Stage II-III Chronic Heart Failure (CHF) within 2 years of first diagnosis. Patients with class III-IV CHF have a 50% mortality rate over 2 years. While heart transplant is a viable option for a small fraction of these patients, the vast majority of CHF patients will die within 8 years of first diagnosis. To help combat this terrible disease, Juventas is developing SDF-1 therapy for treatment of heart failure as its first clinical indication.

One of the primary causes of heart failure is previous damage due to ischemic cardiovascular disease including MI. In the advanced disease, the Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction (LVEF) is often less than 35% (Normal 55-60%), due to a thinning of the muscle in the ventricular wall and dilation of the chambers of the heart known as ventricular remodeling. The challenge is to restore blood flow, preserve and support injured cardiac myocytes and promote cell growth in the infarcted region. SDF-1 provides an attractive therapeutic opportunity for these patients.

Beyond heart failure, Juventas has demonstrated that SDF-1 has the potential to significantly improve cardiac function in patients suffering an acute myocardial infarction (MI) or suffering from angina. In the United States, 1.2 million people experience an acute MI per year, with a 37% one year mortality rate. For those patients surviving an MI, many progress toward angina and heart failure. There are 16.8 million people suffering from angina, defined as chest pain caused by coronary heart disease with 500,000 new cases diagnosed annually. The estimated direct and indirect cost of HF in the United States for 2008 is $34.8 billion largely due to the recurrent, lengthy hospitalizations associated with the disease. Novel effective heart failure treatments will improve quality of life and reduce the number of heart failure hospitalizations which will provide both clinical benefit and savings to the health care system. Juventas’ SDF-1 therapy has the potential to significantly improve the lives of millions of cardiovascular disease patients by helping regenerate damaged cardiac tissue.