Novelogics Biotechnology Inc. Canada

Novelogics Biotechnology Inc. has developed unique next generation antibody immunotherapies for treating multiple types of advanced cancers including colon and prostate cancers.  Immunotherapies for cancer are anticipated to be a $35B per year industry in the upcoming years.  

Cancer Drugs with Safety in Mind

From the beginning the novel and specific design of the therapeutic antibody drug minimizes the potential for autoimmune diseases or harming good cells with the bad.  We are dedicated to making cancer treatments that won't make you sick to get you better.

Unecumbered, Founder Owned

Novelogics has developed their assets in an unecumbered envriornment allowing investors to work directly with the team.  At this time the companyis 100% founder owned and undiluted.  Novelogics is anticipating an early exit and has begun discussions with pharmaceutical companies interested in this area.

In addition; a related Medical Device

In addition to the drug, Novelogics has a second PCT Patent pending for a related medical device with a readily available "go to" market in place. 

Year Founded
2013
Biotech Subsector
Medtech Subsector
Biotech Phase of Development
Medtech Phase of Development
Technology Overview
We have developed a panel of patent-protected monoclonal antibodies which bind members of the NKG2D ligand family for use as novel cancer immunotherapies. Studies have shown that cancer cells in part evade the immune system by releasing biologically active molecules, such as NKG2D ligands that interfere with immune cells ability to fight cancer. These ligands are capable of shutting down tumour killing immune effector cells by overwhelming the important activation-type NKG2D receptors, basically putting them to sleep, so tumors can continue to grow undetected. Using our specifically designed antibody drug, we now have the potential to clear out these ligands and restore the immune system in a more balanced way to destroy tumor cells without over-stimulating the immune system or causing adverse side effects.
Alliance & Collaborations
None
Supporting Metrics or Evidence
Proof of concept studies in progress
Current Financing Needs
$2M
Current Timeline
Within 2 years of IND
Current Investors
Founder Funded
IP Status
Two PCT patents pending
Recent Milestones
Have developed a panel of monoclonal antibodies,filed two PCT patents (pending), assembled management and scientific advisory team, completed preliminary invitro and invivo studies and will continue with further characterization before moving on to humanization of the Ab (antibody).
Management Team Highlights
Dr. Cheney, President & CSO has 26 years in R&D (10 years in oncology) including 16 years in drug discovery and has contributed to successful drugs that are either on the market or in late stage clinical trials. Co-Founder, Elaine Allison has 25+ years of corporate management experience.
Ms Elaine Allison
Ms Elaine Allison
LinkedIn logo VP, Business Development 

Novo Nordisk

Novo Nordisk was founded in 1923 and is based in Bagsvaerd Denmark with additional R&D sites in Seattle WA Beijing China and Bangalore India. The firm is actively seeking to in-license assets and also forms research collaborations and co-marketing and distribution partnerships with other biotech companies. Novo Nordisk is focused on developing protein and peptide therapeutics and protein delivery devices. The firm has also in-licensed antibodies. Indications of interest include metabolic disorders blood and immune disorders growth disorders and inflammatory disorders. Within the inflammation fieldthe firm is particularly targeting therapies based on cytokines and on molecules on the surface of cells involved in immune regulation. The firm is interested in certain orphan conditions. In addition to partnering and in-licensing Novo Nordisk has a corporate venture fund Novo AS. The firm also offers research grants and resources for studies into Novo Nordisk's products.
Charles Gray
Sourcing Director 
Tomas Landh
Director 

NYU Office of Therapeutics Alliances

The NYU Office of Industrial Liaison (OIL) promotes the commercial development of NYU technologies into products to benefit the public, while providing resources to the University to support its research, education, and patient care missions. NYU OIL also facilitates research collaborations between NYU researchers and industry on projects of mutual interest.

In 2013, NYU launched the Office of Therapeutics Alliances (OTA). OTA is a nimble, "virtual biotech" approach to advance novel therapeutic projects by playing on the strengths of NYU in dissecting disease pathways and those of external, professional capabilities in early stage R&D. OTA identifies NYU projects with potential for addressing unmet needs, delineates the path to therapeutic proof of concept and assembles internal and external resources tailored to each specific project’s needs to maximize the likelihood of successful partnerships with biopharma, new biotech startups or disease foundations. 

Nadim Shohdy
Director, Drug Discovery Partnerships 
Sunil Shah
Partner 
Prashant Shah
Partner 

Omnes Capital France

Comprising 10 investment professionals, Omnes Capital’s venture capital team acquires minority stakes in young companies with high growth potential. Its main areas of interest are financing innovative business ventures in the information technology and life sciences sectors (drug development, diagnostics, medical devices, bioproduction).

For 12 years, Omnes Capital has managed FCPI mutual funds (French regulated mutual funds investing in innovative companies).

Bruno Montanari
Director 

ORIGIMM Biotechnology Austria

ORIGIMM is a young, ambitious Austrian biotech company striving to become a market leader in the treatment of acute and chronic infectious diseases, and dermatological conditions associated with various pathogens.

ORIGIMM is developing the worldwide first therapeutic vaccine for treatment of acne vulgaris; the disease with enormous market potential, afflicting 85% of teenagers and more than 20% of adults below 40 years of age.

Using its proprietary ProVaDis® technology platform ORIGIMM overcomes the challenges in vaccine and immune therapy development by early focus on protective efficacy of antigens in the context of human disease. This translates into a rapid selection of best, most protective candidates with a significantly improved success in clinical trials. ProVaDis platform enables ORIGIMM to rapidly build its product portfolio in many other lucrative areas.

Website:
www.origimm.com
Year Founded
2014 (Seed phase/LLC), 2012 (pre-Seed,o.p.)
Biotech Subsector
Biotech Phase of Development
Technology Overview
Proprietary functional immunologic screening platform which enables rapid and reliable identification of best antigens and vaccine or mAb candidates.
Alliance & Collaborations
Clinicians and scientific KOLs. Initiation stage (pharmaceutical companies).
Supporting Metrics or Evidence
Proof of principle completed; priority patent application submitted and approved, high industrial interest
Current Financing Needs
$1.5 M
Current Timeline
Acne vaccine clinical phase start (2017). Vaccine candidate antigens against second indication selected (2017).
Current Investors
No private investors yet. Financed by the founders and public funds.
IP Status
Technology patent priority date 2014 (2015). Acne vaccine antigens patent pending (Q1/2015).
Recent Milestones
Technology POC completed. Acne vaccine candidates identified. Successful fund raising from several public research institutions supporting high technology development.
Management Team Highlights
Sanya SELAK, PhD – Founder, inventor and CEO. 20+ years of international scientific and industrial experience in antigen discovery, validation and immunology. Author of many publications, recipient of many scientific and funding awards and inventor on several patents. Tamás BERKE MD, MSc – Co-founder and COO. Physician, trained in pediatric infectious diseases, molecular virology, and a biotech professional with 20+ years of scientific and industry experience in project management during all stages of pre-clinical and clinical vaccine development. Thomas FISCHER MBA – CFO. Serial entrepreneur since his university degree 25 years ago. Thomas has dedicated know-how and experience in strategy building, fundraising, business and corporate development, finance and administrative affairs.
Dr Sanya Selak
Dr Sanya Selak
LinkedIn logo CEO 

Orphagen Pharmaceuticals United States

Orphagen’s focus is small molecule discovery at novel drug targets. We create programs leading to first-in-class drugs. Our goal is to partner these with development stage pharmaceutical companies.

We have been first mover in creating three discovery programs for novel targets, including one program that initiated Phase 1 clinical trials with a strategic partner (JT Pharma) in 2013 for autoimmune disease.

We work with novel drug targets from a very productive target class, the nuclear receptors.

Our work has so far been funded by $15 M in federal grants and partnership revenue. Orphagen is in the process of raising equity funding to accelerate current programs.

Orphagen’s lead internal program is for retinitis pigmentosa, the major form of hereditary blindness. Closely following are antagonists to SF-1, a promising target for treatment of Cushing’s syndrome, a life-threatening endocrine disorder, and two cancers with an endocrine connection: prostate cancer and adrenocortical cancer. New target screening may lead to first-in-class programs for glioblastoma, sickle cell anemia, and cancer immunotherapy.

Website:
www.orphagen.com
Year Founded
2000
Biotech Subsector
Biotech Phase of Development
Technology Overview
Orphagen targets unexplored or “orphan” nuclear receptors (NRs), members of a receptor family that includes targets for major breast and prostate cancer drugs and for anti-inflammatory glucocorticoids. Approximately half of the 48 known NRs are targets for drugs on the market or new compounds approaching FDA approval. These marketed drugs generate in excess of $10 billion in annual U.S. sales alone. The remaining nuclear receptors, the orphans, have potential for design of first-in-class drugs. Orphagen has proprietary methodology, experience and knowhow for identifying drug-like small molecules that turn these receptors on and off. Orphagen’s work with these orphans is based on close relationships with academic laboratories.
Alliance & Collaborations
In 2003-6, Orphagen developed a first-in-class drug discovery program for ROR-gamma, a new target for autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis and steroid-resistant asthma. Orphagen licensed its discovery-phase ROR-gamma program to JT Pharma in 2008. In 2013, JT Pharma initiated the first Phase 1 clinical trial for this target. BMS, Merck, Pfizer, Janssen, and Amgen also started biotech partnerships for the same target, but not until 2 to 5 years after JT-Pharma and Orphagen. Orphagen has demonstrated ability as a first mover for novel drug targets.
Supporting Metrics or Evidence
Approximately 50% of all industry partnership deals are done early, at a preclinical stage. Upfront payments for first-in-class drugs can reach $10-15 M and have grown substantially in the last 15 years. Combined later milestones are greater: $100 M to $300 M. First-in-class programs, such as Orphagen’s, are likely candidates for accelerated approval by the FDA, which markedly increases their potential for appreciated value. Orphagen plans to partner its discovery and development programs one by one as they mature. Partnership revenue will be used to expand R&D in Orphagen’s discovery pipeline and, when sufficient, to return capital to investors.
Current Financing Needs
$3 M to accelerate the Orphagen program for retinitis pigmentosa and to support a backup program (SF-1). Orphagen continues to receive significant non-dilutive funding from its ongoing partnership, from grants, and from sale of non-proprietary assay services.
Current Timeline
Orphagen expects to have advanced preclinical proof-of-principle data for retinitis pigmentosa and to execute a value-generating partnership for this indication in 2016. This is Orphagen’s most advanced internal program. Additional lead stage partnerships are anticipated in 2017 and beyond. Orphagen is also exploring revenue-generating partnerships in 2015-2016 for new target screening.
Current Investors
Friends and family, only. Orphagen has a single class of stock, Common stock.
IP Status
Orphagen has filed broad use patents for all ligands to two of its major targets where it has been the first to identify small molecule agonists or antagonists. Its screening technology and lead compounds, which are new chemical entities, are maintained as trade secrets.
Recent Milestones
2010-14 Phase 1 SBIRs for: (i) prostate cancer; (ii) endometriosis; (iii) glioblastoma; (iv) retinitis pigmentosa (RP); and (v) Cushing’s syndrome. 2013 File broad use provisional patent application on novel target for RP. 2013 JT Pharma starts Phase 1 clinical trial based on Orphagen strategic partnership. 2014 Structural biology collaboration for SF-1 with pharmaceutical partner. 2014 Initial proof-of-principle for treatment of RP in an animal model of disease. Identification of target co-crystal structure.
Management Team Highlights
Scott Thacher, Ph.D. Founder, CEO and CSO. Investigator for 15 SBIR grants to Orphagen. Concluded Orphagen’s licensing deal with Japan Tobacco. Previous: Investigator at Allergan. Co-founder: Io Therapeutics. Judy Blakemore. Director Business Development. Former interim COO at Onyx. Business development and transactional advisor for small to mid-size biotechnology companies since 1993. Paul Crowe, Ph.D. Director of Biology, Former Senior Director Pharmacology at Neurocrine. Ruo Steensma, Ph.D. Director of Chemistry, Former Director at Structural Genomix.
Dr Scott Thacher
LinkedIn logo CEO 
BIO

Scott Thacher, Ph.D., CEO and Director, founded Orphagen in 2001.  He has 30 years of experience in life sciences research and pharmaceutical R&D and led Orphagen to its first partnership in 2008. Prior to founding Orphagen, Scott directed programs in acne, psoriasis, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes at Allergan. Scott was previously on the biochemistry faculty at the Texas A&M College of Medicine (1986-1993) and was a Staff Fellow at the NIH. He holds a Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard University and a B.S. in physics (Stanford).

PATH

PATH is an international nonprofit global health organization that was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Seattle with 12+ employees in more than 3 offices around the world. PATH is one of the largest nonprofit organizations in global health today. PATH works on a wide array of emerging and persistent global health issues in the areas of health technologies maternal health child health reproductive health vaccines and immunization and emerging and epidemic diseases such as HIV malaria and tuberculosis. PATH is best known for developing and adapting technologies such as improved vaccination devices and new tools to prevent cervical cancer to address the health needs of developing countries. It targets health problems evaluates possible solutions and assesses whether they would be useful in finding health solutions.
Bill Cadwallader
Senior Commercialization Officer Diagnostics 
Greg Zwisler
Commercialization Officer 

PBM Capital Group

PBM Capital is a hybrid family office and operating company based in Charlottesville Virginia with an additional office in New York City. The firm is funded and led by the successful life science entrepreneur Paul Manning who started and sold several companies in his career. The firm can make investments ranging from approximately $5 to $1 million into companies and due to its funding structure has no requirements for holding period or capital structure. The firm makes investments in the forms of equity controlling interest in-licensing MBO/LBO growth capital and is also willing to co-invest. The firm is looking for companies located around the globe and makes around 5-15 investments in a given year.
Jayson Rieger
SVP of Business Development & Portfolio Management 

Pfizer Venture Investments United States

Pfizer Venture Investments (PVI) is the corporate venture capital arm of Pfizer and was founded in 2004. PVI has an annual investments budget of $50 million and invests up to $10M per investing round. The firm focuses mainly on U.S. startups but has global reach. PVI attempts to allocate 80% of its funding to U.S. based companies and utilizes the remaining 20% for international ventures. PVI provides equity funding for private companies in need of seed, growth, or venture financing. Remaining opportunistic, PVI focuses entirely on high growth prospects in all sectors and all phases of development. The ideal candidate has a potential for high growth and returns. Additionally, PVI will seek to in-license products and buyout companies if the opportunity arises.

Barbara Dalton
Vice President