Allostera Pharma
Presenter: Maurice JP Piché, President & CEO
Company Profile
The Company’s strategy is to advance its lead product, a series of insulin-like growth factor receptor “IGF-1R” antagonists, past the IND stage and into early clinical trials for hepatocellular carcinoma (“HCC”) as a lead indication and, later in conjunction with a pharmaceutical partner, for other more common cancer indications. The Company’s lead compound is approximately 18 months from an IND. The IGF-1R antagonists have a very potent biological profile in a number of human cancer cell lines. In addition, they have been shown to have multiple mechanisms of action as anti-proliferative and anti-angiogenic agents in animal studies. Once early clinical efficacy has been established, the Company intends to license its IGF-1R molecules to the pharmaceutical industry and seek further funding to advance the other molecules in its pipeline into clinical development.
The IGF-1R is a drug target with enormous industry interest and has been dubbed “the next EGF receptor”. Misregulation of the IGF-1R is estimated to occur in 80% of human cancers and there is significant in vivo evidence that interfering with IGF-1R function can result in antitumor benefit for cancer patients. A number of large pharmaceutical companies have initiated IGF-1R research programs internally or have in-licensed the rights to preclinical IGF-1R research programs.
Lead Compounds
The Company’s lead compounds to the IGF-1R were discovered using its proprietary Module-X technology® platform for the rational design of small focused peptide libraries of allosteric non-competitive (ant)agonists to growth factor and cytokine receptors. The Company’s technology platform was developed in the laboratory of the Company’s scientific founder, Dr. Sylvain Chemtob, and has generated highly specific peptides with average positive hit rates of 20-50%. This approach allows the Company to perform very rapid and inexpensive proof-of-concept studies on disease-relevant receptors.
The Company’s other pipeline molecules include peptide antagonists to the VEGF-2R involved in angiogenesis in cancer and ocular diseases, and to cytokine receptors such as the IL-1R, IL-23R, IL-4/13R involved in inflammatory diseases. These molecules have varying degrees of in vitro and in vivo data that will be used to support a clinical efficacy statement. There are major competitive advantages to the allosteric agents developed with this platform compared to other strategies developed by the pharmaceutical industry that target other regions of the IGF-1R. Non-competitive and allosteric nature of the inhibitors would enhance therapeutic index relative to other strategies
Key Therapeutic Indications
The Company’s IGF-1R antagonists represent a very attractive value proposition that could be developed into a major oncology drug. The lead indication being targeted for Allostera’s IGF-1R antagonists is HCC, the fifth most common solid tumor worldwide accounting for 500,000 new cases. In the US, HCC accounts for approximately 10,000 new cases but is increasing rapidly as HCV infection rates increase. HCC represents a very promising market because of the complete lack of effective pharmaceutical treatments for this highly aggressive cancer. Therapy consists of surgical removal of lesions or liver transplant. Approval of an effective pharmaceutical treatment would create a new and emerging market for this condition, potentially reaching US$200 M in the US.
HCC is being pursued as an initial indication because of the relative ease to recruit HCC patients who have not been solicited in other clinical trials and because phase II studies can be designed as a monotherapy against a placebo without the need to compare its efficacy to existing treatments. HCC therapeutics development offers an orphan drug status by the FDA and the European commission with tax incentives on the clinical development costs and a 7 years exclusivity in the market, The IGF-1R antagonists will be developed In conjunction with a pharmaceutical partner for a franchise of other cancers including breast, prostate, and colon cancer representing a huge multibillions market. Other examples of targeted cancer therapeutics to growth factor receptors including Gleevec, Erbitux, just to name a few, currently generates several billion $ in annual sales
The Team
Allostera’s scientific founder and CSO is Dr. Sylvain Chemtob, MD, PhD, FRCPC an internationally respected authority on lipid mediators in vaso-occlusive and proliferative neuro-retinopathies. Dr. Chemtob is a serial entrepreneur and has demonstrated past success with founding and selling a start-up company and licensing technology to industry.Christiane Quiniou Director of Scientific Affairs, is a structural biochemist with a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Montreal. Her involvement in research has been in protein chemistry and in molecular biology, particularly focusing on endothelial cell death mechanisms, enzymology and membrane receptor structure. She is the author of 3 patents as well as various publications. She also is the co-founder of Allostera Pharma. Maurice JP Piché, President & CEO is an experienced executive with more than 25 years in the life science industry having served many multinationals in Europe, Canada and the USA. He has a successful track record in the area of M&A, financing and licensing with international partners. He has directed the IPO of a high-tech life science developer and manufacturer, listing the company on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX).
Financing
With slightly more than $2,1Million obtained so far through various sources of seed financing, Allostera is currently looking for an investment of $10 million in two rounds, a Series A of $4 million and a Series B of $6 million, to allow the Company to pursue its pre-clinical GLP works, then complete phase I & II studies. One of the major CRO has designed a pre-clinical proposal confirming the feasibility of the project. The “lean” structure of a virtual company initially, allows for a concentration of resources focusing on the development of the technologies. With an IND planned in 18 months, and then a phase I and II well advanced, various potential licensee would most likely join in to finance the remaining clinical stages. Conservative expectations concurs to value the company at more than $150 Millions after a successful Phase II.
Investment Highlights
Business Model: virtual company: focus on entering phase I in 24M
Business Opportunity: create a >$150M opportunity in 3-4 years with phase II lead product
Founding team: very strong scientific and management skills with outstanding track record of business successes.
Pre-clinical and clinical development expertise: MDS-Pharma
Module-X-Technology® : cutting-edge technology platform capable of “super-rapid” generation of ant(agonists) for multiple receptor families and indications.
Lead product: highly potent and efficient IGF-IR antagonists that are in pre-clinical and 18 months from an IND
Robust product pipeline: antagonists for other growth factors and cytokine receptors with high medical relevance
Financing and exit strategy: $10 M VC funding in two financing rounds and a medium exit strategy via an acquisition or an IPO
Presenter Biography
Maurice JP Piché, President & CEO of Allostera Pharma is an experienced executive with more than 25 years in the life science industry, having served with many multinationals in Europe, Canada and the USA. He has a successful track record in the area of M&A, licensing with international partners and financing. Having conducted turn-around mandates and headed many start-ups companies, in 2001 he lead the IPO of a high-tech medical equipment developer and manufacturer, listing the company to the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX).
Contact
Allostera Pharma
5160 blv Decarie, suite 770
Montreal, Qc Canada H3X 2H9
Maurice JP Piché
President & CEO
mpiche@allosterapharma.com
(514) 745-4029
Dr Sylvain Chemtob MD, PhD, FRCPC
Founder & Chief Scientific Officer
schemtob@allosterapharma.com