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Pinetree Therapeutics is an award-winning, pre-clinical stage biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. We are dedicated to finding solutions for unmet medical need, such as drug resistance and tumor recurrence, in targeted therapy by degradation of disease-causing proteins with AbReptorTM platform. Novel degrader drugs have been exciting scientific field, due to its distinct mechanism of action (removal of disease-causing protein). AbReptorTM was developed for targeted degradation on membrane bound and extracellular proteins causing diseases. Receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) and non-RTK inhibitors have made huge progress in the past few years, but their application is limited due to specificity, drug resistance, and on-target toxicity. Our platform`s RTK degraders promise to redefine their distinctive mutation-agnostic properties, differing from existing RTK therapeutics field. With the pre-clinical animal study, our lead molecule demonstrated on-target degradation, mutation agnostic anti-tumor effect, and potent anti-tumor effect in RTK inhibitor resistant tumor. Surprisingly, no signs of toxicity were found in rodent and cynomolgus monkey. Furthermore, it would unluck full potential to solve limitation of RTK and non-RTK therapeutics. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) field made an initial breakthrough with poor response rate, high toxicity profiles, and exhausted poor clinical outcome. Our platform has full potential to solve the current problem of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), PD-(L)1 inhibitors. Our PD-(L)1 degrader is the first ever in-class to demonstrate enhanced anti-tumor immunity in pre-clinical animal studies. Pinetree Therapeutics` lead molecule is in pre-clinical IND stage, and we are committed to expanding our platforms to other target proteins, such as RTKs, non-RTKs, and ICIs. We believe our platform has the potential to transform the field of medicine and revolutionize the treatment of cancer and other diseases.
Kezar co-founder Christopher Kirk, Ph.D. began his work on the unique function of the immunoproteasome at Proteolix in 2005, while working on the compound that would become the successful multiple myeloma drug KYPROLIS™ (carfilzomib). As VP of Research at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, which acquired Proteolix in 2009, Christopher led the efforts to develop the first selective inhibitors of the immunoproteasome and designed multiple studies demonstrating their profound immunomodulatory effects. In parallel with this work, Christopher and Kezar co-founder Jack Taunton, Ph.D. collaborated on several research projects involving protein secretion. This collaboration inspired a belief in the strong synergies between protein degradation and protein secretion, two fertile areas for drug discovery with platform potential. In 2014, Christopher and Kezar co-founder John Fowler began developing the business plan for Kezar, acting on a longstanding desire to work together and build a world-class company. In 2015, John and Christopher raised $23M and negotiated a worldwide, exclusive license agreement with Amgen for the Onyx immunoproteasome inhibitor patent estate. Now underway, John and Christopher are excited to leverage their complementary skill sets to build Kezar into a leader in small molecule drug development.
Novan is a clinical-stage drug development company focused on topical delivery of nitric oxide. The company`s proprietary platform technology enables the stable storage and release of nitric oxide in a variety of dosage forms. Novan is currently developing innovative, first-in-class therapies for the field of dermatology.
EpiVax Oncology is developing precision cancer immunotherapies based on mutanome-directed neo-epitopes, selected using proprietary and validated in silico predictive algorithms. Neo-epitopes are mutated and tumor specific epitopes, recognized as non-self, capable of generating highly potent specific T cell immunogenic responses against tumors, translating in improved clinical outcome. EpiVax Oncology is developing neo-epitope based therapeutic vaccines customized and specifically designed for each cancer patient, based on the genetic profiling (using next generation DNA sequencing) of each patient`s unique tumor and normal genome sequence (the mutanome). EpiVax Oncology`s ultimate purpose is to address major unmet medical needs inadequately addressed by other oncology and immuno-oncology treatments which are either only benefiting a very limited subset of patients, or prone to adverse events, or extremely costly and complex to manufacture. EpiVax Oncology`s ambition is to become a premier cancer precision medicine company, leveraging EpiVax`s world class excellence in computational-immunology, genomics and vaccine design, built over the last 20 years.
Steven Rosenstein Associates is a Skokie, IL-based company in the Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, and Biotech sector.