Company Details

Name Diurnal
Year founded 2004
Category Medicine
University partner Sheffield
Fusion IP shareholding 53%

Contact Details

Contact details  Richard Ross
Diurnal Limited
8th Floor, Eastgate House
35-43 Newport Road
Cardiff
CF24 0AB
Telephone +44 (0) 114 275 5555
E-mail richardross@diurnal.co.uk
Website http://www.diurnal.co.uk/

Company Background

Diurnal has developed a ‘delayed and sustained release therapy’ to deliver hydrocortisone in a manner that mimics the normal physiological circadian rhythm. This clearly defined rhythm, with high levels in the morning and low levels at night, is lost in patients with adrenal insufficiency. The product, has received two related Orphan Medicinal Product designations from the European Medicines Agency, which affords ten years of market exclusivity after the grant of a marketing authorisation in Europe.

For the non-technical

Our bodies operate on a natural 24 hour cycle that determines when all our key body processes are operating at their peak. This ‘circadian rhythm’ enables our bodies to regenerate at night, building up key hormones so that when we wake up in the morning we have our maximum energy to enable us to get through the day. During the day these decline, until we go to sleep at night and the process starts all over again. Diurnal develops drugs that follow this natural rhythm, so that a patient whose body has stopped producing hormones naturally only has to take a drug once a day releasing replacement hormones in exactly the same way as their natural cycle. 


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