CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Elixir Pharmaceuticals, Inc., today announced the presentation of data from the Company’s ghrelin antagonist program and its sirtuin program at The Center for Business Intelligence’s 3rd Annual Obesity Drug Development Summit, being held in Arlington, Virginia, July 26 – 27, 2007. According to Peter DiStefano, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Elixir, the ghrelin antagonist program is the Company’s most advanced internally developed program and represents a potential treatment for a range of metabolic disorders. A naturally occurring hormone, ghrelin has been identified as having a key role in metabolism and energy storage. In preclinical testing, the Company’s small molecule ghrelin antagonists have demonstrated a variety of beneficial effects, notably decreasing body weight, improvements in blood glucose and insulin levels, and reductions in fatty liver. Elixir intends to initiate Phase 1 clinical studies of a ghrelin antagonist in 2008.
