Senior Staff Writer

Formerly Discovery Therapeutics Inc., Aderis Pharmaceuticals Inc. has a new name, its first product in Phase III trials and is seeking a new identity one as a public company.

Aderis, of Hopkington, Mass., filed its initial public offering prospectus with the SEC, stating it would seek up to $100 million and proposing the ticker symbol ADPX. The company has four products in development for a total of five indications and as recently as October when it still went by Discovery Therapeutics raised $45 million in its fourth round of private financing. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 10, 2001.)

Earlier this month Aderis said it had moved its lead product, Rotigotine CDS, a transdermal dopamine agonist for Parkinson’s disease, into Phase III trials in the United States and Europe in the second half of 2001. Schwarz Pharma AG, of Monheim, Germany, has an exclusive, worldwide license to develop and commercialize the product.

Rotigotine-CDS also is formulated as a reduced-dose patch for the treatment of restless legs syndrome, Aderis said in its prospectus. This neurologic movement disorder is believed to give those afflicted an urge to frantically flail their legs back and forth because of disagreeable sensations associated with this syndrome. Schwarz Pharma began development of Rotigotine-CDS reduced dose with a pilot Phase II safety and efficacy clinical trial in Europe in late 2001.

Aderis also has MRE-470, an adenosine A2A agonist, in Phase II development in the United States as an alternative to exercise stress testing in combination with coronary artery flow imaging for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease. King Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Bristol, Tenn., has an exclusive worldwide license to develop and commercialize the product.

DTI-0009, also in Phase II studies, is an adenosine A1 agonist designed to control heart rate in atrial fibrillation by slowing conduction through the atrioventricular node. It is being developed as both an oral formulation for chronic therapy and an intravenous formulation for acute therapy. Fujisawa Healthcare Inc., of Deerfield, Ill., has exclusive clinical development and commercialization rights in the United States and Canada for the intravenous formulation.

DTI-0017 is an adenosine A1 antagonist designed to treat edema typically associated with congestive heart failure, also being developed as both an oral formulation for chronic therapy and an intravenous formulation for acute therapy. The company has completed a Phase I trial and is reformulating the product and conducting additional animal testing.

UBS Warburg LLC, of Stamford, Conn.; CIBC World Markets Corp., of New York; and Dain Rauscher Inc., of Minneapolis, are serving as underwriters for the proposed IPO.

Aderis’ largest stockholder is the combined entities associated with the Sanderling Group, of Menlo Park, Calif., which own 19.1 percent of the company, although Aderis’ executive officers and directors as a group own 15.7 percent.