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The mission at Ascus Biosciences is better microbes for a better life. Based in San Diego, CA, Ascus is focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing first-in-class endomicrobial products for the animal health and nutrition industries.
Civetta Therapeutics was founded by William Sellers (Broad Institute and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) and Eric Fischer (Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School) to advance new medicines through small molecule intervention targeting propeller domains with the goal of developing important therapeutics for cancer and other indications.
Tissue Gnostics is a Los Angeles, CA-based company in the Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, and Biotech sector.
Type 1 diabetes (T1D), formerly known as juvenile diabetes, is a chronic, life-threatening disease that affects millions of people worldwide. In the United States, 30,000 new cases are estimated every year with half of those cases diagnosed in young children. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the patient`s immune system goes awry and attacks and destroys the pancreatic beta cells. Beta cells are responsible for regulating blood sugar (glucose) levels by producing precise amounts of the essential hormone insulin. The discovery of injectable insulin in the 1920s changed T1D from a uniformly fatal disease with a life expectancy of months to one that could be carefully managed for decades through multiple daily blood glucose measurements and insulin injections. However, insulin injections are not a cure and patients face a lifetime of difficult disease management and serious complications including kidney failure, blindness and nerve damage. Despite nearly a century passing since the discovery of insulin, insulin injection remains the only treatment available to patients. Semma Therapeutics was founded to develop transformative therapies for patients who currently depend on insulin injections. Recent work in the laboratory of Professor Douglas Melton led to the discovery of a method to generate billions of functional, insulin-producing beta cells in the laboratory. These cells develop in islet-like clusters grown from stem cells. Initial preclinical work in animal models of diabetes has shown that transplantation of these cells are sufficient to control blood glucose levels. This breakthrough technology has been exclusively licensed to Semma Therapeutics for the development of a cell-based therapy for diabetes. Ongoing research at Semma Therapeutics is focused on combining these proprietary cells with a state-of-the-art cell delivery and immune protection strategy that can protect these cells from the patient`s immune system and allow the beta cells to function as they do in non-diabetic individuals. Implantation of the beta cell-filled device has the potential to provide a true replacement for the missing beta cells in a diabetic patient and would not require patient immunosuppression. Semma Therapeutics is working to bring this new therapeutic option to the clinic and improve the lives of patients with diabetes.
Cortendo AB is a global biopharmaceutical company founded in 1996, incorporated in Sweden, and based in the United States. Cortendo recognizes the urgent need to make new medicines available for people with orphan diseases, and the Company is committed to delivering therapies that make a difference. An orphan disease is one for which the pharmaceutical industry has not worked to make new medicines. It may be a rare disease (in the U.S. this is defined as a disease that affects fewer than 200,000 people) or a disease such as tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid or malaria that is not often diagnosed in developed countries but remains common in countries that are still developing. Cortendo’s initial strategic goal is to be the global leader in finding, developing and making medicines for people with orphan endocrine diseases, with its most advanced program in Cushing’s syndrome. Cortendo research led to the development of COR-003 (levoketoconazole) which is currently being studied in the Phase 3 global SONICS trial for the treatment of endogenous Cushing’s syndrome. COR-003 has received orphan designation from both the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Cortendo is building the capabilities and resources to independently develop and commercialize its orphan assets in key global markets and to partner non-strategic product opportunities, such as BioPancreate-2001 for Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. The company also intends to leverage its commercial expertise by working with partners to acquire, develop, and commercialize late-stage or commercial assets in a select few orphan disease focus areas.