http://www.tornado-insider.com/news/Article.asp?id=11956
13 September 2001 11:26
A revolutionary pain treatment could
allow the use of nervous tissue to deliver painkillers directly to the
source, reducing the possible side effects. The discovery was announced
last November, at the Society of Neuroscience conference in New Orleans,
by professor Aaron Filler, a neurosurgeon at the University of California
in Los Angeles. The Cambridge (UK) based biotech company that holds the
patent for the technology developed by Filler, SynGenix, has now secured
new funding worth £5 million (€8 million), and thanks to this
it aims to begin human testing of a therapy against acute and chronic pain.
The British company was founded in
1992 by the Californian professor and by another of the scientists involved
in the research, Andrew Lever from the University of Cambridge. “For years
SynGenix has been involved exclusively in research,” explains the CEO,
Tom Saylor, “only in 1998, when the first set of funding for £1.5
million (€2.4 million, editor’s note) arrived, did we decide to explore
the entrepreneurial side of the company”.
The second round of funding, which
was announced today, was led by Technomark Medical Ventures and by World
Life Sciences. While Providence Investment Company, the funds managed by
the Generics Cambridge Research and Innovation group and the business angel
Martin Bloom, have all re-invested in the SynGenix. The institutional investors
currently have control of the company.
The drug delivery platform is called
“Pro Vector”, and was developed by Filler. It is capable of using a biochemical
function of the central nervous system, the so-called axonal transport.
With a method very similar to that used with therapeutic antibodies, SynGenix
uses axonal transport to administer the active principles directly to the
centre of the nervous cells in order to stop the pain. However, the technology
may have many other uses for all illnesses affecting the nervous system,
from Alzheimer’s disease to multiple sclerosis.
“We think that this painkiller could
be introduced into the market in four or five years”, explains Saylor,
who estimates the market potential of Pro Vector to be around £20
billion (€32 billion). Besides this treatment against acute and chronic
pain, SynGenix is also testing another two drugs for neuropathy. The Cambridge-based
company’s business model, which involves reaching profits in five or six
years, also involves selling the license for its technology.
Last year the British company signed
an agreement with GlaxoSmithKline, which was interested in using SynGenix’s
technology as a drug delivery system for one of its own active principles.
“Lots of companies have shown their interest in our activities,” explains
Saylor, “we expect this collaboration to also branch out to the target
validation sector and therapeutic molecules sector”.
Copyright © 2001 Tornado Insider
By Sabina Rosset