[BioWorld] Novelty Nobility attracts $9M in series A funding for NN2101 GLP tox studies | |
---|---|
Date : 2020.02.25
Link : |
|
File |
BW 02042020 Novelty Nobility.pdf |
Tuesday, February 4, 2020
Novelty Nobility attracts $9M in series A funding for NN2101 GLP tox studiesby jihyun KimHONG KONG – South Korean biotech Novelty
Nobility Inc. has attracted ₩10 billion (US$9 million) in series A funding to
develop therapeutic antibodies inhibiting the stem cell factor (SCF)/c-KIT
pathway.
The list of investors includes two existing
investors, Quad Investment Management Corp. and Medytox Venture Investment Co.
Ltd., and new investors Neoplux Co. Ltd., Ulmus Investment Inc., JX Partners
Co. Ltd., BSK Investment Co. Ltd., Kingo Investment Partners Co. Ltd., Widwin
Investment Co. Ltd., P&I Investment Co. Ltd. and Korean biopharmaceutical
company Eyegene Inc. participated in the funding round.
The company said on Jan. 31 it would use
the money mainly for manufacturing and GLP toxicology studies of NN-2101, a
therapeutic monoclonal antibody inhibiting the SCF/c-KIT pathway. The drug
candidate is in development for treating retinal diseases, including wet
age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy/diabetic
macular edema. NN-2101 will enter clinical trials in the second half of 2021.
Founded in 2017 by Sang-gyu Park, incumbent
professor of pharmacy at Ajou University, the biotech is based in Seongnam, and
also at Ajou University, Suwon.
Work has focused on targeting SCF and its
receptor, c-KIT (CD117), a novel angiogenesis and vascular permeability factor.
VEGF is known as the most important angiogenic growth factor; however, the
Korean biotech has verified that SCF/c-KIT induces neovascularization and
vascular permeability, which are not mediated by anti-VEGF drugs. Its research
was published in the October 2019 issue of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and
Vascular Biology.
The research shows that in endothelial
cells, SCF-induced c-KIT activation enhances vascular leakage by disrupting
endothelial adherens junctions. Also, it highlights three findings. First is
that hypoxia increases c-KIT expression in endothelial cells. Secondly, SCF, a
ligand of c-KIT, induces pathological neovascularization in the eye through the
GSK (glycogen synthase kinase)-3β/βcatenin pathway. Lastly, the data indicate
anti-SCF/c-KIT therapy could be a new therapeutic strategy for the treatment of
visionthreatening ocular neovascular diseases.
The company said those findings can offer a
solution to patients for whom anti-VEGF treatment failed, or around 20% to 40%
of those receiving the treatment.
“We have discovered that SCF/c-KIT is a
strong endothelial permeability mediator, which is as potent as VEGF but works
separately and independently of VEGF, offering a possibility to treat patients
who are refractory to anti-VEGF treatment,” Jin Cho, chief financial officer and
head of business development at Novelty Nobility, told BioWorld.
According to the company, the c-KIT
mutation is reportedly known to be widely engaged in the pathogenesis of
gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST), leukemia (acute myelogenous leukemia
and chronic myelogenous leukemia), small-cell lung carcinoma (SCLC),
glioblastoma (GBM) and mastocytosis. The activating mutation of c-KIT is known
to induce resistance to Gleevec (imatinib, Novartis AG) in cancer patients.
“SCF/c-KIT overall has little angiogenic
activity at normoxia whereas its local expression in hypoxic endothelial cells
increases dramatically, contributing to the pathogenic angiogenesis,” Cho
added. “Unlike anti-VEGFs, which enlarge avascular area at the center of the
diseased eyes, anti-SCF/c-KIT selectively treat abnormal vascular tufts at the
verge while normalizing a vascular area in the middle.”
In addition to NN-2101, Novelty Nobility’s
four other drug candidates are under development for treatment of oncology and
two rare diseases, including retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and mastocytosis.
Based on a c-KIT antibody-drug conjugate
for oncology, the biotech is developing two candidates: NN-3201, which uses a
commercial linker, and NN-3202, which adopts proprietary linker technology. The
company targets the potential indications as GIST, leukemia and GBM.
In the rare disease pipeline is NN-2901, a
c-KIT antagonist antibody for treating ROP, a potentially blinding eye disorder
that affects premature infants for their entire life if treatment fails. The
other rare disease candidate, NN-3901, is a c-KIT antibody-drug conjugate
aiming to treat mastocytosis, a disease from which up to 90% of
c-KIT-activating mutation is reported. Imatinib is a standard treatment, though
some types of c-KIT mutation drive resistance.
“There is good agreement that the next
generation of antiangiogenesis/anti-permeability treatments for the eye need to
be ‘beyond VEGF,’ but there has not been much success in identifying what that
target would be,” Patricia D’Amore, Charles L. Schepens professor of
ophthalmology and professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School told
BioWorld.
“Novelty Nobility has identified that new
target, the stem cell factor,” D’Amore said. “This choice is based on strong,
peerreviewed science that has shown that stem cell factor stimulates vascular
permeability, that blocking its receptor c-KIT prevents diabetes-induced
vascular leakage in experimental diabetes, and that the blockage of stem cell
factor prevents angiogenesis in the well-characterized mouse oxygen-induced
retinopathy model. Importantly, the stem cell factor appears to be exerting its
effects independently of VEGF,” she added.
“The next challenges will be the design and
conduct of clinical trials that I expect will focus on diabetic retinopathy and
diabetic macular edema and perhaps nonresponders for anti-VEGF therapy in AMD
patients.”
|
|
Prev | [AsiaTechDaily] Novelty Nobility - Developing World-Class Therapeutics In Ophthalmology And Oncology |
Next | [한경닷컴] 박상규 노벨티노벨리티 대표 "신규 항체로 황반변성·당뇨병성 망막증 잡겠다" |