CalAsia Pharmaceuticals and Professor Evan Kantrowitz of Boston College Announce a Collaboration to Develop Novel Gluconeogenesis Inhibitors
About Type II Diabetes (T2DM): T2DM is a chronic debilitating disease that decreases both the quality of life and life-span. For example, T2DM is the major cause of non-traumatic amputation, kidney transplantation and blindness. Currently it is estimated that 285 million people worldwide are diabetic and this number is expected to increase to 438 million by 2030. Each year nearly 3.8 million deaths are attributed to diabetes. T2DM is characterized by elevated blood glucose (hyperglycemia) that results from impaired beta-cell function, resistance to insulin action and excessive endogenous glucose production (EGP). Consistent with T2DM etiology, currently approved anti-diabetic therapies aim to reduce excessive EGP by utilizing the potent gluconeogenesis inhibitor metformin. Unfortunately, approximately 5% of T2DM patients are intolerant to metformin therapy primarily due to gastrointestinal adverse drug reactions. Thus, up to 14 million T2DM patients worldwide do not have access to a gluconeogenesis inhibitor, as part of their “therapeutic-arsenal”.
About CalAsia’s Drug-discovery: CalAsia Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is an early stage pharmaceutical company focused on the rapid discovery of drug-like small molecules by utilizing its core technologies. In detail, CalAsia core technologies combine functional fragment screening with X-ray crystallography co-crystallization to rationally design and synthesize New Chemical Entities (NCEs) with drug-like properties. By differential fragment screening of closely related isotypes, CalAsia also develops selective NCEs early in the drug discovery process thereby increasing the quality of potential drug candidates. Currently, CalAsia has 6 internal drug-discovery programs for the treatment unmet medical needs for Parkinson Disease, Type II Diabetes, Inflammation, Prostate Cancer and Malaria. Of note, CalAsia team has decades of drug-discovery experience and has been involved in numerous drug-discovery programs that have resulted in multiple clinical candidates as well as one marketed drug.
About CalAsia’s Services: The CalAsia team provides its expertise; which includes cloning, recombinant protein expression (E. coli, Baculovirus & Yeast), recombinant protein purificaton, biochemical assays, cellular assays, fragment screening, and X-ray crystallography co-crystallization; to the drug-discovery community through contract research.
About Boston College: Boston College is one of the oldest Jesuit, Catholic universities in the United States, with two campuses in Chestnut Hill and Newton, MA (just outside of Boston) with a total enrollment of approximately 15,000 students. Strengthened by more than a century and a quarter of dedication to academic excellence, Boston College commits itself to the highest standards of teaching and research in undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs and to the pursuit of a just society through its own accomplishments, the work of its faculty and staff, and the achievements of its graduates. U.S. News and World Report ranks Boston College 31st among national universities. Boston College confers more than 4,000 degrees annually in more than 50 fields of study through nine schools and colleges. The University has made a major commitment to academic excellence. It is in the process of adding faculty positions, expanding faculty and graduate research, increasing student financial aid, and widening opportunities in key undergraduate programs, such as foreign study, internships, community service, and personal formation. Boston College has experienced tremendous growth in recent years, including a 75% increase in undergraduate applications over the past decade. During the same period, a remarkable increase in revenue from voluntary giving has helped to move the University's endowment to approximately $1.4 billion, among the 40 largest in the nation.