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The trillions of microbes that call us home – the human microbiome – perform critical functions that preserve our health including helping develop our immune system, manufacturing nutrients such as vitamins, and harvesting energy from the diet. Alterations of the human microbiome are increasingly recognized as a key factor in autoimmune, metabolic, infectious and many other diseases. For millions of years, humans have co-evolved with this community of microbes, communicating in an ancient language that holds critical clues about how autoimmune and infectious diseases develop. This language is based on a system of signals that our resident microbes use to successfully colonize us, such as byproducts of bacterial metabolism and factors that bacteria use to adapt to human niches. Recent discoveries have shown that most of these signals do not lead to disease, rather, they promote our long-term survival. Vedanta Biosciences is developing an innovative class of therapies that modulate pathways of interaction between the human microbiome and the host immune system. Vedanta Biosciences was co-founded by PureTech and a group of world renowned experts in immunology and microbiology.
IMetrikus, Inc. is a Sunnyvale, CA-based company in the Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, and Biotech sector.
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.
Raptor is a NASDAQ-listed biopharmaceutical company with the mission to develop and commercialize life-altering therapeutics that treat debilitating and often fatal diseases. Raptor`s lead product, PROCYSBI (cysteamine bitartrate) delayed-release capsules, received FDA approval on April 30, 2013. The Company anticipates receiving a determination from the EMA regarding its PROCYSBI marketing application in the European Union in the second half of 2013. Raptor’s product pipeline may advance therapeutic options for additional indications. Raptor`s management team consists of repeat entrepreneurs with the experience to build a successful company.
MEI Pharma (Nasdaq: MEIP) is a San Diego-based pharmaceutical company focused on leveraging its extensive development and oncology expertise to identify and advance new therapies for cancer. Our approach to building our pipeline is to license promising cancer agents and create value in programs through development and commercialization, or strategic partnerships, as appropriate. Our portfolio contains four clinical-stage drug candidates, including one candidate in an ongoing global registration trial and another candidate that is anticipated to advance into a registration trial this year. Our drug candidate pipeline includes: Pracinostat, an oral HDAC inhibitor that is in a Phase 3 pivotal study in combination with azacitidine for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. Pracinostat is also being evaluated in a clinical study in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome. Pracinostat is licensed to Helsinn Healthcare SA, a Swiss pharmaceutical corporation. ME-401, a selective oral inhibitor of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (“PI3K”) delta. ME-401 is anticipated to progress into a single-agent registration study in 2018 for the treatment of adults with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma. Voruciclib, an orally administered and selective cyclin-dependent kinase (“CDK”) inhibitor differentiated by its potent in vitro inhibition of CDK9 in addition to CDK6, 4 and 1. Initiation of a Phase I dose-escalation study in patients with relapsed and/or refractory B-cell malignancies after failure of prior standard therapies is scheduled to being in the second calendar quarter of 2018. ME-344, a novel and tumor selective, isoflavone-derived mitochondrial inhibitor drug candidate, has demonstrated evidence of single-agent activity against refractory solid tumors in a Phase I study. In preclinical studies, tumor cells treated with ME-344 resulted in a rapid loss of ATP and cancer cell death. It is currently being evaluated in an investigator-initiated study in combination with the VEGF inhibitor bevacizumab (marketed as Avastin®) in patients with HER2 negative breast cancer.