AiCuris Anti-infective Cures AG
AiCuris nominates Madam Therapeutics with its innovative peptide approach to fight AMR as the first winner of the AiCubator Resident Status in 2022
DGAP-News: AiCuris Anti-infective Cures AG
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AiCuris nominates Madam Therapeutics with its innovative peptide approach to fight AMR as the first winner of the AiCubator Resident Status in 2022, a corporate innovation accelerator initiative at BIOCOM AMR Conference 2022
Wuppertal, Germany, April 08, 2022 – AiCuris Anti-infective Cures AG, a leading company in the discovery and development of drugs against infectious diseases, today announced the first winner of the AiCuris AiCubator initiative in 2022, the second year of the company’s accelerator program. Submitted projects in the field of anti-infectives were evaluated by AiCuris experts on various criteria, including status of target identification, preliminary efficacy data on hits, addressed indications and potential competitive advantages to existing standards of care. Over a period of up to three years, the winning projects will benefit from AiCuris’ scientific and preclinical / clinical development support and expertise and understanding of the industry to advance their ideas and approaches. “We are excited to welcome the first winner of the AiCubator Resident Status in 2022,” said Dr. Holger Zimmermann, CEO of AiCuris Anti-infective Cures AG. “Outstanding and novel approaches are needed to face today’s healthcare threats and combat antimicrobial resistance and complex infections. The AiCubator program was launched to find and promote exactly those projects – projects that bear the promise of an innovative drug based on exciting new scientific approaches.” “The good experiences we made during our first year of the AiCubator initiative encourage us to further support promising early projects based on new scientific principles and ideas to fill pipeline gaps, tackle anti-microbial resistance and prevent future pandemics,” he added. “We are very much looking forward to working with the selected project team and supporting Madam Therapeutics to bring their project to the next level.” The Project: Artificial intelligence and a unique peptide approach to fight complex bacterial infections Madam Therapeutics, a biotech company from Oss, the Netherlands, has established an extensive library of selective, dual-acting so-called synthetic antimicrobial and antibiofilm peptides (SAAPs) with a unique mode of action that are highly efficient in killing multi-drug resistant pathogens under physiologically challenging conditions without inducing resistance. In addition, SAAPs eliminate established biofilms formed by bacteria to protect them against the human immune system and antibiotic treatments. By using artificial intelligence, the company identifies the best SAAP variants to develop targeted drug candidates against different antibiotic-resistant bacteria in a variety of indications. Madam Therapeutics generated pre-clinical proof-of-concept (POC) data in superficial wound infections, implant infections, as well as pulmonary and bladder infections, showing that SAAPs outperform many of the known preclinical- and clinical-phase antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). The initial targeted therapeutic indications include infected diabetes food ulcers (DFU) and sepsis. “We are delighted to participate in the AiCubator program and to benefit from the deep experience AiCuris has demonstrated in the field of anti-infective development,” said Remko van Leeuwen, CEO of Madam Therapeutics. “Based on a joint commitment to fight antimicrobial resistance, we hope, with the support of AiCuris, to accelerate the achievement of new milestones in the further development of our dual-acting SAAPs, a new generation of resistance-breaking antibiotics.”
To promote early ideas that might lead to novel resistance-breaking antibiotic or anti-infective approaches, each year, AiCuris selects promising research projects for the AiCubator, an innovative corporate incubator. The AiCubator initiative is dedicated to academic scientific groups or recently formed biotech start-ups with early-stage anti-infective projects in areas of high priority that are scientifically attractive but too early for licensing deals. The program was designed to help scientists and start-ups build their own business and grow their underlying ideas and approaches to an advanced level. Residents of the AiCubator program receive long-term support, including financial, business development as well as scientific and regulatory advice. Additionally, they gain insight into pre-clinical and clinical drug development and the pharmaceutical business. For more information on AiCubator visit: www.aicuris.com/AiCubator.
AiCuris was founded in 2006 as a spin-off from Bayer and focuses on the discovery and development of drugs targeting infectious diseases. SANTO Holding is the Company’s majority investor. PREVYMIS(R) (Letermovir), a first-in-class non-nucleoside cytomegalovirus (CMV) inhibitor acting via a novel mechanism of action, was licensed to MSD in 2012 and is approved in the EU, US, Japan and other parts of the world for use in bone marrow transplants for the prevention of HCMV infections in adults who receive an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant. The Company is developing drugs for the treatment of viruses such as human CMV, herpes simplex virus (HSV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and adenoviruses, as well as for SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses with pandemic potential. In 2022, AiCuris acquired exclusive rights from Hybridize to develop and commercialize direct-acting RNA-based therapies to prevent severe diseases from BK virus (BKV) infections in immunocompromised patients. In the field of antibacterials, AiCuris seeks to develop innovative treatment options for indications with high medical need, including life-threatening, multidrug-resistant, hospital-treated pathogens. In 2019, AiCuris and Lysando joined forces to drive the fight against antimicrobial resistance with innovative approaches based on Lysando’s Artilysin(R) technology platform, a new class of phage-lysine derived artificial designer molecules with a novel mode of action and the potential to replace conventional antibiotics. In 2021, AiCuris expanded the cooperation with Lysando with a focus on diabetes food infections. In 2018, Dr. Holger Zimmermann, CEO of AiCuris, and Prof. Dr. Helga Rübsamen-Schaeff, Founding CEO, were awarded the German Future Prize 2018 (German President’s Award for Innovation in Science and Technology) for the development of Letermovir and their project, “Protection in the Absence of the Immune System – a Life-Saving Innovation against Dangerous Viruses” (original title: “Schutz bei fehlendem Immunsystem – die lebensrettende Innovation gegen gefährliche Viren”). For more information, please visit www.aicuris.com.
08.04.2022 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP – a service of EQS Group AG. |