Selective protein kinase C activator marks KAI’s second clinical program

South San Francisco, CA – May 4, 2007 – KAI Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company, today announced that it has begun dosing subjects in a Phase 1 trial of KAI-1455. KAI-1455, the second compound to enter the clinic from KAI’s broad protein kinase C therapeutic platform, is being developed to prevent ischemic injury, a serious condition caused when there is an insufficient supply of blood to organs and tissues.

KAI-1455 is a selective epsilon protein kinase C (εPKC) activator designed to reduce ischemic injury during planned surgical procedures, such as coronary artery bypass grafting, vascular surgery and pediatric cardiac surgery. Several studies have demonstrated that εPKC plays a key role in cytoprotection during times when blood supply is compromised.

“We are encouraged by preclinical results of KAI-1455, which dramatically reduced ischemia-related injury in multiple animal models, and we are excited to now study the drug in humans,” said Gregory Bell, Vice President of Clinical Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer. “With no treatments on the market today for preventing ischemic injury, KAI-1455 could ultimately save and improve the lives of patients undergoing many critical surgical procedures. In the United States alone, more than 1 million of such surgical procedures are performed annually.””

The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study will evaluate the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of KAI-1455 in healthy males. Participants will receive KAI-1455 intravenously over 12 hours and the study is expected to last approximately eight weeks. In preclinical studies, KAI-1455 showed a significant reduction in organ damage when it was delivered prior to the ischemic event.

KAI recently reported encouraging results from a Phase 1/2 trial of local administration KAI-9803 in heart attack patients and plans to initiate a Phase 2 trial early next year. The company is also evaluating intravenous administration of KAI-9803 and completed a Phase 1 clinical study in April 2007. Intravenous administration of KAI-9803 may increase the population of heart attack patients eligible to receive the drug and may support additional indications involving ischemia and reperfusion injury such as stroke and organ transplantation.


About KAI Pharmaceuticals
KAI Pharmaceuticals is a privately held, venture-backed drug discovery and development company with preclinical and clinical programs addressing significant and unmet patient needs in cardiovascular disease, pain, and inflammation. The company has applied its core expertise in the biology of protein kinase C (PKC) to discover highly potent and selective inhibitors and activators for each of the PKC isozymes. KAI is based in South San Francisco, California, and can be found online at www.kaipharma.com.