Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners Announces Publication of Animal Data Demonstrating Vigabatrin Effective for W...( CORAL GABLES Fla. Aug 21 /- Catal...),Health

CORAL GABLES, Fla., Aug 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners, Inc. (Nasdaq: CPRX) today reported that animal data from a new study sponsored by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory appears to demonstrate that taking vigabatrin leads to rapid weight loss and reduced food intake. The data was published online as of August 20, 2008 in the journal Synapse, a prestigious peer-reviewed neuroscience publication.

Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners is currently evaluating the use of CPP-109, its version of vigabatrin, for the treatment of both cocaine and methamphetamine addiction. Two FDA-approved U.S. Phase II clinical trials are currently ongoing. CPP-109 is an orally administered, small molecule drug which inhibits psychostimulant-induced dopamine release.

According to the study published in Synapse, a total of 50 adolescent and adult animals, all genetically bred to be obese, were assigned to either a control group or groups that received vigabatrin at various dose levels and were monitored for up to 40 days. The controls received daily salt water (saline) injections, while those in the study groups received up to 300 milligrams of vigabatrin per day. All animals received injections for two, 7-13 day periods, with breaks in between.

At the end of the 40 day period, all animals receiving vigabatrin weighed significantly less than the control subjects. In fact, those animals that were bred to be obese experienced a loss of up to 19 percent of their total weight, while non-obese animals lost 12 to 20 percent of their total weight following short-term treatment with vigabatrin. Amy DeMarco of Brookhaven led the study working in the laboratory of Brookhaven Lab sen
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