Hillhurst Biopharmaceuticals Inc is a private biopharmaceutical company focused on realizin the medical potential of over fifty years of research into the heme oxygenase enzyme and its metabolites as therapeutic agents. The technology was co-invented by Edward Gomperts, MD, a hematologist at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles with extensive biopharmaceutical industry experience. A substantial pre-clinical literature has elucidated the mechanism and efficacy of the heme oxygenase enzyme and its metabolites to reduce the inflammation and apoptosis (cell death) associated with cerebral injury. Targeting this pathway also has been demonstrated in pre-clinical research to reduce the consequences of the sickling phenomenon in sickle cell disease as well as to reduce inflammation in multiple sclerosis and other inflammatory conditions. In work reported previously, safety has been demonstrated in four Phase 1 and 2 clinical studies in a variety of conditions utilizing the gasotransmitter carbon monoxide, that Hillhurst employs to upregulate the heme oxygenase pathway. Hillhurst has developed an orally administered therapeutic, HBI-002, that has achieved drug levels in animals that have proven efficacious in preventing and treating neural injury, in preventing sickling and death in transgenic sickle cell mice, as well as in improving outcomes in preclinical models of multiple sclerosis. An intravenous formulation, HBI-137, is also available.
