Presenting companies 2013
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Chicago Cancer Cluster
AuraSense Therapeutics, LLC is a biopharmaceutical company developing and commercializing spherical nucleic acid (SNA) constructs as revolutionary, genetically-targeted therapeutics for numerous diseases, including multiple forms of cancer. SNA constructs enable "gene regulation" - direct manipulation of genetic messages inside cells and tissue. SNA constructs are highly specific, stable, and safe. They are able to distribute to therapeutically relevant sites within the body. SNA constructs have the amazing ability to penetrate natural protective barriers, including the skin's stratum corneum and the blood-brain-barrier. The Company's most advanced developments include constructs targeting two solid tumor types, topical siRNA therapeutics targeting psoriasis, and (in collaboration with Northwestern University) a therapy for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) - an aggressive form of brain tumor.
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Contact:
Percy Van Crocker, Jr. VP Commercial Development T: +1 847-673-1701 www.aurasensetherapeutics.com |
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OncoSenescence, LLC is a pre-clinical stage biopharmaceutical start-up spun out of the University of Chicago, in Chicago Illinois. The company’s business model is to develop technologies which leverage a patient’s own immune system in the fight against cancer by stimulating antitumor immunity through the natural process of cellular senescence. OncoSenescence is currently developing a personalized senescent cancer cell vaccine, which enhances a patient’s immunological awareness of a tumor using an approach that can be combined with both conventional radiological treatment and immunotherapy. This technology offers a significant competitive advantage compared to other vaccine approaches, as it broadly engages the immune system’s armamentarium against the markers which are unique to the patient’s own tumor. The current target population which can most readily benefit from this novel radiosensitization approach includes prostate cancer patients with locally advanced and metastatic disease. OncoSenescence will advance their novel whole-cell cancer vaccine through early stage clinical testing by demonstrating immunogenic response to primary human senescent tumor cells, fully developing their manufacturing process and capacity, and engaging in pre-IND discussions with the FDA by Q1 2015. By utilizing their connection to the University of Chicago Medical Center they also plan to begin phase I, first-in-man, trials to establish safety and early indications of efficacy by Q4 2015, after which they plan to continue development into late stage clinical evaluations by engaging with a strategic partner with advanced-stage clinical development expertise.
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ColoPrev: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most common cancer in the US and incidence and mortality are even higher in the African American community. CRC screening has been found to save many lives and it is recommended to all persons who do not have a family history of cancer by age 50 (or 45 for AAs). Colonoscopy is the best test for screening but this is invasive and it carries some risks. Non-invasive tests are stool based, and not good at detecting early lesions. A blood based test that would diagnose a significant number of early cancers would be highly acceptable and would likely increase compliance with CRC screening. Micro RNAs are ideal markers for cancer as they are stable in blood plasma. Proof of concept studies have shown that a combination of markers is able to detect CRCs and some advanced polyps. The aim is to develop a reliable blood based test that will be highly accepted by the community and this will result in an increase in CRC screening with a subsequent decrease in CRC incidence and mortality.
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Contact:
Xavier Llor Associate Professor of Medicine University of Illinois at Chicago T: +1 312-413-8872 [email protected] |
Massachusetts
Eutropics Pharmaceuticals is addressing the need for improving the treatment of aggressive forms of myeloma, lymphoma, leukemia, and other cancers. The company is developing a novel diagnostic technology that will guide the use of established and experimental therapeutics, enabling the delivery of personalized medicines to patients suffering from cancer. Among such experimental therapies is our own first-in-class compound that targets the apoptosis regulating oncogene Myeloid Cell factor-1 (Mcl-1). Our proprietary technology, BH3 profiling, provides a platform for new biomarker/companion diagnostics to help guide the use of cancer therapies. These biomarkers provide a unique understanding of a cancer cells’ ability to respond to chemotherapies that induce programmed cell death (apoptosis). This understanding enables the physician to choose the treatment option most likely to benefit the individual patient. Initial clinical studies indicate that the test will provide “actionable” data to physicians. The test is currently being validated as a predictive test for drugs that are in clinical development. This work is supported by the NCI and several pharmaceutical companies.
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Contact:
Michael Cardone Co-Founder, President and CEO T: +1 617-714-4405 ext 112 [email protected] www.eutropics.com |
Sialix Inc. is developing a portfolio of therapeutic antibodies targeting glycan alterations in cancer. The emerging field of glycobiology offers a very attractive set of cancer-specific targets found repeatedly on many solid tumors. These tumor associated glycan alterations are seen on the surface of the cancer cell and thus are amenable to antibody therapeutics. Cancer-associated glycan alterations play important functional roles in tumor migration, cell adhesion, and metastasis; therefore, therapeutic antibodies have the potential to not only kill cancer cells but also distort critical biological functions in cancer progression. Sialix has licensed a broad IP portfolio from UCSD, and has developed critical proprietary tools that uniquely enable the development of highly sensitive antibodies targeting abnormal glycans in cancer.
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Quebec
Oncozyme Pharma Inc. is a Montreal-based, privately-held, biopharmaceutical company, which is developing a new approach in cancer therapy, based on the inhibition of endo-exonuclease, a critical enzyme regulating cancer cell proliferation. Oncozyme is committed to bringing new anticancer drugs to market, providing patients with true clinical benefits at a better cost/efficacy ratio. The company is focused on the clinical development of its lead compound OCZ103 with two ongoing phase II clinical trials in colorectal cancer and lung cancer. Oncozyme is also developing a second generation product of OCQ103, along with a discovery program on inhibitors of endo-exonuclease.
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Réseau Cancer Quebec: The primary objective of the Cancer Network is to allow Quebec researchers to have at their disposal a strong infrastructure that will support their combined efforts to attain common goals. The key activities are tumour banks and the services that support large scale research in genomics and proteomics. The network has mobilised a significant number of researchers in the area of cancer that unite their efforts to pursue high caliber multidisciplinary research. The network strives to maximize the interaction that will have a significant impact on the health of patients with cancer. These interactions between different specialists and the development of new therapies are the activities that define the mission of the cancer network.
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IRICoR, the Institute of Research for Immunology and Cancer – Commercialization of Research, is a not-for-profit drug development and commercialization center based at the Université de Montréal (UdeM), Institute of Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC). Our mission is to rapidly translate highly innovative and commercially promising academic projects from IRIC/UdeM and collaborating centers into high value novel therapies in oncology, immunovirology and related indications through a very flexible business model adapted to the private sector and aimed at de-risking the development and commercialization of proprietary paradigm-shifting therapeutic approaches. IRICoR is the only fully-integrated drug discovery and commercialization center of its kind in Canada under a single roof, with one of the largest academia-based medicinal chemistry groups in the country. IRICoR strategically supports and invests in selected projects to rapidly transition them from the academia to the market, while ensuring the identification of the best partners for development and financing, by focusing on the innovation translation gap. IRICoR has a portfolio of programs ready for partnering: small molecule programs at the maturation stage (ranging from high throughput screening stage to lead optimization), earlier stage projects (target validation to hit identification) and drug discovery enabling tools.
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gIcare pharma Inc. is a clinical-stage, GI specialty company which develops analgesic drugs providing adequate colonic analgesia in patients who undergo sedation-free colonoscopy. In the last decade, a major cost increase was observed in colonoscopy, mainly due to the extensive use of i.v. sedaction. GIC-1001 is a novel alternative to replace costly deep and moderate sedation in colonoscopy and therefore, to inscrease colorectal cancer screening and surveillance. It aligns cost containment with visceral pain management, without any compromise on clinical outcomes.
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Toulouse
Abliance owns key technologies and constantly innovates to develop next generation antibodies. Our team of experts closely works with research laboratories, diagnostic industry, clinical research and biopharmaceutical industry actors to understand the needs of each purpose, its regulatory environment and economic constraints. Abliance provides antibodies that perform in their application by designing unique solutions.
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Cytune Pharma develops CYP0150, a super IL-15, resulting from the fusion of huIL-15 and the sushi+ domain of its R-alpha chain receptor. CYP0105 uniquely mimics the major mechanism of action of IL-15 (transpresentation) even in pathologic conditions (cancer, infection). It restores and enhances both the innate and adaptive NK and immune T cell proliferation and activity. CYP0150 is a cytokine restoring a potent but balanced immune response and therefore represents a unique opportunity relative to the successful but increasingly crowded family of anti-immunosuppressive antibodies such anti-CTLA4 and anti-PD1. In mice and monkeys studies, CPY0150 alone and in combination was shown to have promising efficacy in different tumor models in addition to have an attractive safety and PK profile. CYP0150 was shown to be superior to IL-2. Finally, CYP0150 is produced via a simple and classical pharmaceutical production system. Moreover, Cytune develops a broad portfolio of potent immunocytokines, i.e. monoclonal antibody fused to CYP0150. These ICKs enable to manage the product Life Cycle Management for existing blockbusters (generating new IP to face coming patent expirations) as well as to increase the efficacy of existing or future antibodies while reducing their tox profile.
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Contact:
Dr. Didier Coquoz Chief Development officer, Chief Business Development Officer T: +41 79 771 27 19 [email protected] www.cytunepharma.com |
Atlantic Bone Screen is a French CRO specialized in high-quality preclinical evaluation services in the field of bone and joint diseases and in bone diseases from tumor origin. Atlantic Bone Screen aims to optimize and accelerate the development of compounds, thanks to the identification and characterization of the therapeutic potential of drug candidates, nutraceuticals and biomaterials. Our preclinical platform is composed of In vitro assays with bone and joint cells from human and animal origin as well as tumor cell lines. We also provide In vivo assays with reliable animal models reproducing human bone pathologies (osteosarcoma, chondrosarcoma, bone metastases from breast and prostate cancer). Atlantic Bone Screen also proposes ex vivo analyses such as Histological analyses (hard and soft tissues, immunohistochemistry) and imagery (DEXA analysis, radiography, microCT analysis and bioluminescence).
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Contact:
Elisabeth Porcher Business Development Manager T: +33 (0) 6 19 05 27 08 [email protected] www.atlantic-bone-screen.com |
Oslo
BerGenBio AS is an oncology focused biotechnology company built on proprietary CellSelect technology used to identify and development novel drug targets and biomarkers. The company then develops first in class therapeutics against these novel targets for the treatment of aggressive drug resistant cancers. The company's development pipeline includes drug candidates that inhibit EMT and block the formation of “cancer stem cells”: the lead program BGB324 is a first in class, selective small molecule Axl kinase inhibitor, it will be positioned to prevent and reverse cancer drug resistance to standard of care in several solid and hematological tumors, clinical trials will start in 2013.
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PubGene AS was founded in response to a clear demand for products that organize information for life sciences such as information relevant to drug development, disease prevention, diagnostics and other human health related issues. PubGene develops bioinformatics solutions for sequencing and microarray approaches, including gene and protein arrays. PubGene provides a unique software-as-a-service platform, Coremine, which enables domain-specific community portals combining context networks with data visualization. Coremine Medical provides qualified connections between medical concepts such as diseases, drugs, treatments, symptoms, genes and medical experts. PubGene is well-positioned to become a leading provider of domain-specific online information communities. With Coremine Medical, users get access to vast amounts of medical information from high quality sources such as PubMed, DrugBank, and ClinicalTrials, and a continuously increasing number of key biomedical information sources. COREMINE Oncology will enable the analysis of complex cancer-specific mutational profiles (extracted from patient biopsies using next generation sequencing). The tool will help guide the oncologist through the mutational maze, identifying key drivable and drugable mutations, and help the oncologist select the optimal treatment regimen (or clinical trial). The solution is being developed through a number of active collaborations including the groundbreaking Norwegian Cancer Genomics Consortium’s tumor sequencing program. PubGene Inc. is a privately held US-based bioinformatics company. PubGene Inc. wholly owns its Norwegian subsidiary PubGene AS and Sencel AS, where the main product development and coordination of marketing activities are carried out.
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Ultimovacs is developing a novel therapeutic cancer vaccine. The vaccine is based on a set of proprietary peptides that are identified through long term studies of patients in with an exceptional clinical response following immunotherapy. The target antigen is telomerase which is an essential target present in more than 90% of cancers. Two phase I/IIA clinical trials are currently recruiting patients with lung cancer and prostate cancer respectively. Study endpoints are safety, immune responses and dose finding. Tumor response and progression free survival are exploratory endpoints. We are looking for partners for clinical development of the therapeutic vaccine as combination therapy, primarily with immunostimulators /modifiers. Ultimovacs is also planning continued clinical development of the company’s therapeutic vaccine asmonotherapy and/or in combination with conventional therapy. Ultimovacs is well funded to perform the next development steps and would like to initiate discussions with potential partners regarding licensing / collaboration opportunities.
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UK "Golden Triangle"
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RVI NewCo Ltd, a UK company being founded by Cancer Research Technology and the University of Birmingham, is developing a platform technology which aims to redirect pre-existing anti-viral immunity to target tumors. A virus-derived peptide is conjugated to an antibody or other tumor targeting agent through a cleavable linker. The proprietary platform enables presentation of the peptide on cancer cells, marking them as virus-infected and targeting them for destruction by highly potent cytotoxic T-lymphocytes. The redirected immunotherapy platform is currently in preclinical development and has demonstrated proof of concept in in vitro and early animal studies using a wide range of targeting antibodies. Current research is focused on completing preclinical work on an exemplar product and initiating first-in-man studies within the next two years. Follow-on products are being considered and the platform is expected to have wide applicability for use with antibodies and other targeting agents.
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Contact:
George Tzircotis Business Development Manager, Cancer Research Technology Ltd T: +44 (0) 20 3469 6336 [email protected] |
Virttu Biologics Ltd is a UK biotechnology company with leading expertise in the field of oncolytic viruses. Using a modified version of the common Herpes Simplex HSV-I virus named SEPREHVIR, the company has already completed 5 Phase I trials for a range of difficult to treat cancers – high grade glioma(x3), head& neck squamous cell carcinoma and malignant melanoma. To date some 80 patients have been treated with neither side effects nor dose limiting effects observed. Particularly worth noting is that the FDA has granted approval for pediatric trials in both brain and non-CNS tumors. Currently the company has just finished enrollment for a Phase I/II a trial for mesothelmia, with further trials in ovarian cancer (Phase I), hepatocellular Phase I/IIa, pediatric brain tumors (Phase I) and glioma (phase II) imminent. To accelerate research into the various mechanisms for SEPREHVIR and other HSV oncolytic viruses, Virttu has also recently launched the Virttu Replicate Open Innovation Forum www.virttureplicate.co.uk. Accessible to researchers in institutes and biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, the Replicate Open Innovation Forum aims to stimulate development of new oncology combination therapies by providing access to Virttu's oncolytic virus, SEPREHVIR (HSV1716).
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