Our Products

BELLUS Health is a global health company focused on the development and commercialization of products to provide innovative health solutions to address critical unmet needs. BELLUS Health engages in pharmaceutical and nutraceutical activities.

Nutraceutical

VIVIMIND™ - to protect memory function
After over 15 years of significant scientific research, including clinical testing with over 2,000 individuals in 50 U.S. and 17 Canadian medical centres, and hundreds of millions of dollars invested, VIVIMIND™ has been scientifically proven to protect memory function, based on the naturally occurring ingredient, homotaurine. VIVIMIND™ is now available for consumers.

VIVIMIND™ is a patented product based on the ingredient homotaurine, a naturally occurring amino acid with unique properties found in certain seaweed. VIVIMIND™ (homotaurine) is proven to have beneficial effects on brain structure, as well as memory.

VIVIMIND™ is commercialized by OVOS Natural Health Inc.

Pharmaceutical

In AA Amylodidosis
Eprodisate (KIACTA™) is the Company’s oral investigational product candidate for the treatment of Amyloid A amyloidosis, a potentially fatal disease that is caused by chronic inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis. It is most often associated with kidney dysfunction, although other major organs may be involved. Currently there is no cure for this disease and its incidence rate is underestimated. Following our first pivotal trial that showed significant treatment effects (P = 0.025) in preventing disease progression, the Company is continuing the drug development program for eprodisate (KIACTA™) and is initiating the second and confirmatory Phase III clinical trial. The Company expects to file the protocol amendment to the IND in the first half of 2009, with approximately 190 patients to be followed for a period of 24 months. The clinical efficacy endpoint will be similar to that of the first completed Phase II/III clinical trial, but this time will focus on renal function. The required level of statistical significance (target p-value) will be 0.05.

In Type II Diabetes and Certain Features of Metabolic Syndrome
NC-503 (eprodisate) is being developed for the treatment of Type II diabetes and certain features of metabolic syndrome. A Phase II clinical trial in diabetic patients was launched in Canada and patient randomization commenced during the second quarter of 2008. The study is a 26-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized study. Interim results are anticipated in the first half of 2009. Results from a validated rat model of diabetes and metabolic syndrome have demonstrated that NC-503 decreases glycemic levels in obese diabetic Zucker rats, when compared to the control group, while preserving 40% more pancreatic islet cells (insulin secreting cells) as compared to the control group, and have shown some protective effect on renal function.

In Alzheimer’s Disease
Based on the positive signal for a treatment effect observed in our Phase III trial and leveraging the many years of accumulated knowledge and experience with tramiprosate in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, BELLUS Health will be pursuing further development of its Alzheimer's disease treatment program. In this respect, BELLUS Health will prioritize and accelerate the development of a prodrug of tramiprosate, a new chemical entity, for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. A prodrug is a pharmaceutical substance which is administered in an inactive form and, once absorbed, is metabolized in vivo into its active form in this case, tramiprosate. The benefits of using prodrugs are predominantly improved pharmacokinetics whereby more of the active compound reaches the target organs and systems, thus improving efficacy.