Founded in 1996, Polyphor is a company in Basel developing drugs only slightly larger than small molecule drugs and their focus is on the disruption of protein-protein interactions. These kinds of interactions are more difficult to disrupt because of the shape of the interaction. Usually, to disrupt an enzyme, you need a small molecule that can slip into the active site. However, protein-protein interactions are typically bigger and may require a larger drug to disrupt. Protein therapeutics such as DARPins and antibodies are good at targeting protein-protein interactions, but their larger size has a cost. It may be difficult to design a drug that can enter cells, cross the blood-brain barrier, or can be taken orally.
Polyphor participates in partnerships with companies to develop their small therapeutics against the clients chosen targets. The most recent annoucement has been a partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim (who recently shut down virology research in Montreal Canada).
Polyphor also develops their own compounds against drug targets and have several in clinical trials, with the most advanced in phase II. They are also clearly moving forward with clinical trails since they have a job posting for a clinical development project manager.
Polyphor has two technologies, MacroFinder and PEMfinder. MacroFinder is a synthetic system to develop libraries of rings, sounds like combinatorial chemistry to me. PEMfiner is based on PEMs, developed by Prof. J. A. Robinson at the University of Zurich (yes, Zurich has not only federal ETH but also their own university). PEMs are cyclic peptides with specific short structural motifs (such as a hairpin turn), and it appears that Prof. Robinson has developed the Pseudomonas aeruginosa inhibitor that is currently in clinical trials at Polyphor. The peptide portion of PEMs can first be developed using phage display, and then the peptide sequence transfered to their synthesis platform. I guess at that point the PEMs are cyclized (and are not cyclized during phage display).
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Abionic
Abionic is a spin-off from the biomedical optics laboratory of EPFL (the ETH twin in Lausanne). It is an allergy diagnostics company developing a point-of-care instrument which can be placed in a doctors office allowing a quick result instead of waiting days for a lab test. From what I can read from papers from the lab, the instrument works on differing diffusion rates of compounds through small channels, and a slower diffusion rate indicates an interaction with whatever is coated in the channel. I'd be really interested to see some standard curves.
Abionic was founded in 2010 and already has ISO 13485 certification for the production of a medical device, which is pretty impressive since I've heard it can take about a year to write out everything. ISO is a quality management standard, meaning that you have quality control checks over all parts of your process (ie you have detailed quality control procedures and methods to ensure they are followed, you have standard procedures for how to change a standard operating procedure, you have methods for checking where problems are if a quality error is reported etc). However, an ISO standard is not how good your product is, just that you produce it consistently. An ISO standard for a medical diagnostics device is important for FDA clearance, a regulatory hurdle that Abionic has already cleared.
And a further note about cutting and pasting on the internet. In some fairly nice documents I've seen a few times this sentence: "The young company has developed a device that can is gaining confidence in the doctor’s office." That can is gaining? What does that even mean. Cut and paste without editing....
Abionic was founded in 2010 and already has ISO 13485 certification for the production of a medical device, which is pretty impressive since I've heard it can take about a year to write out everything. ISO is a quality management standard, meaning that you have quality control checks over all parts of your process (ie you have detailed quality control procedures and methods to ensure they are followed, you have standard procedures for how to change a standard operating procedure, you have methods for checking where problems are if a quality error is reported etc). However, an ISO standard is not how good your product is, just that you produce it consistently. An ISO standard for a medical diagnostics device is important for FDA clearance, a regulatory hurdle that Abionic has already cleared.
And a further note about cutting and pasting on the internet. In some fairly nice documents I've seen a few times this sentence: "The young company has developed a device that can is gaining confidence in the doctor’s office." That can is gaining? What does that even mean. Cut and paste without editing....
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Prexton Therapeutics
As promised, a company from the French side of Switzerland!
Earlier this year, Merck Serono announced it would close facilities in Geneva. As part of this closure, they also announced they would create a startup fund. One of the startups generated from this is Prexton Therapeutics (which is so new it doesn't even have a webpage yet). A search of the company registry reveals they were incorporated at the end of July of this year and interviews state they will be populated with scientists who used to work at Merck Serono.
As I mentioned and unlike other companies I have profiled so far on this blog, this one is at the very beginnings. Although, they are also rather ahead in the game. According to the In Vivo blog:
The targets of Prexton Therapeutics are the metabotropic glutamate receptors mGluR3 and mGluR4, targets for Parkinson's disease. As pointed out in the In Vivo blog post, Prexton Therapeutics has similar targets as Addex Therapeutics, which have a Parkinson's drug currently finished with Phase IIa trials. Addexx Therapeutics was formed with Francois Conquet as the chief executive officer and he is also a founder of Prexton Therapeutics. Both companies are (will be) located in the start-up incubator Eclosion.
Earlier this year, Merck Serono announced it would close facilities in Geneva. As part of this closure, they also announced they would create a startup fund. One of the startups generated from this is Prexton Therapeutics (which is so new it doesn't even have a webpage yet). A search of the company registry reveals they were incorporated at the end of July of this year and interviews state they will be populated with scientists who used to work at Merck Serono.
As I mentioned and unlike other companies I have profiled so far on this blog, this one is at the very beginnings. Although, they are also rather ahead in the game. According to the In Vivo blog:
Prexton will work with preclinical compounds discovered at Merck Serono, says founder and CEO Francois Conquet, who estimated the company will start out about 18 months away from entering clinical development.A search of the founders of the company reveal several close associations with Merck Serono Ventures (Roel Bulthuis is the head). I couldn't find information about the fate of Merck Serono Ventures with the closure of the Geneva facilities.
The targets of Prexton Therapeutics are the metabotropic glutamate receptors mGluR3 and mGluR4, targets for Parkinson's disease. As pointed out in the In Vivo blog post, Prexton Therapeutics has similar targets as Addex Therapeutics, which have a Parkinson's drug currently finished with Phase IIa trials. Addexx Therapeutics was formed with Francois Conquet as the chief executive officer and he is also a founder of Prexton Therapeutics. Both companies are (will be) located in the start-up incubator Eclosion.
Friday, September 14, 2012
Sunday, September 9, 2012
InSphero
InSphero is a company located close to Zurich in the Technopark, also spun off from ETH in 2009. Hmmm, next post will come from the romande side, I've got an interesting recent spin-off in Geneva to talk about next. Digression aside, InSphero sounds pretty futuristic. They develop 3D micro-tissues using a method of hanging-drop and they have many collaborators. The advantage of using 3D tissue culture is since there is no cell adherence to artificial surfaces (like the plastic bottoms of tissue culture plates), it is supposed to more closely replicate tissue in its native state.
The idea of eliminating toxic compounds early in screening is very enticing, although this also creates another barrier, if it isn't accurate it could lead to elimination of compounds that might have been very good. I think Derek Lowe covers a bit of this theme nicely.
InSphero also has some interesting funding, they are part of an FP7 consortium, an interesting funding branch that I haven't heard of before, the Future and Emerging Technologies Open Schema (FET-open), founding new, fragile and innovative ideas. They have also been supported by KTI through VentureLab.
The idea of eliminating toxic compounds early in screening is very enticing, although this also creates another barrier, if it isn't accurate it could lead to elimination of compounds that might have been very good. I think Derek Lowe covers a bit of this theme nicely.
InSphero also has some interesting funding, they are part of an FP7 consortium, an interesting funding branch that I haven't heard of before, the Future and Emerging Technologies Open Schema (FET-open), founding new, fragile and innovative ideas. They have also been supported by KTI through VentureLab.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Molecular Partners
Molecular Partners is in the news recently for striking a 62 million dollar deal with Allergan so I decided to do some research about this company.
Molecular Partners is another alternative scaffold biotechnology company and their fold of choice are the ankyrin repeat proteins based on work done by Andreas Plückthun at ETH in Zurich. These designed ankyrin repeat proteins (DARPins) are small, well produced in E. coli and can be engineered to reach high affinities. Molecular Partners has freedom to operate and a business model that is a combination of internal drug developments and partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. On their webpage, Molecular Partners claims their patents cover DARPins and other repeat proteins, without going in to the patents (yet) I speculate this includes modular leucine-rich repeat proteins which has also been investigated by Andreas Plückthun. What I like about the DARPin is the modular structure, and how you can increase potential binding area with the addition of more ankyrin repeat motifs, but at the cost of increased size.
As with Covagen Fynomers, DARPins can be strung together to create molecules with multiple specificities. The recent deal with Allergan includes MP0260, a DARPin with two specificities, although the structure of the compound is not divulged. Bi-specific binders seems to be the buzz word as of late, and a place where alternative scaffold proteins have an opportunity to shine, given the challenges of developing bi-specific antibodies, not impossible, just more challenging than genetically encoding the different blocks together. Currently Zymeworks is a company working on building bispecific antibodies.
The collaboration with Allergan has also lead to Molecular Partners' most advanced lead, in phase I/IIa clinical trials. This is one of the more advanced of the alternative scaffold proteins currently in clinical trials. I'll write more about that later one day.
More information about Molecular Partners and Allergan can be found in this EvaluatePharma article.
Molecular Partners is another alternative scaffold biotechnology company and their fold of choice are the ankyrin repeat proteins based on work done by Andreas Plückthun at ETH in Zurich. These designed ankyrin repeat proteins (DARPins) are small, well produced in E. coli and can be engineered to reach high affinities. Molecular Partners has freedom to operate and a business model that is a combination of internal drug developments and partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. On their webpage, Molecular Partners claims their patents cover DARPins and other repeat proteins, without going in to the patents (yet) I speculate this includes modular leucine-rich repeat proteins which has also been investigated by Andreas Plückthun. What I like about the DARPin is the modular structure, and how you can increase potential binding area with the addition of more ankyrin repeat motifs, but at the cost of increased size.
As with Covagen Fynomers, DARPins can be strung together to create molecules with multiple specificities. The recent deal with Allergan includes MP0260, a DARPin with two specificities, although the structure of the compound is not divulged. Bi-specific binders seems to be the buzz word as of late, and a place where alternative scaffold proteins have an opportunity to shine, given the challenges of developing bi-specific antibodies, not impossible, just more challenging than genetically encoding the different blocks together. Currently Zymeworks is a company working on building bispecific antibodies.
The collaboration with Allergan has also lead to Molecular Partners' most advanced lead, in phase I/IIa clinical trials. This is one of the more advanced of the alternative scaffold proteins currently in clinical trials. I'll write more about that later one day.
More information about Molecular Partners and Allergan can be found in this EvaluatePharma article.
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