Mulhouse, France, April 30th, 2009 - Rhenovia Pharma SAS, a biopharmaceutical company specialized in the development and optimization of drugs for Alzheimer’s and other diseases of the brain, announces today that it is offering its first biosimulation platform for use in collaborative projects to optimize drugs targeting diseases of the central nervous system.
The Rhenovia platform is being made available as part of the company’s RHEDDOS program. Developed over the last three years the platform, RHENOMS SYNAPSE, is one of the most advanced systems that exploit the complexity of biology systems and the multifactorial nature of brain diseases. The platform models synaptic transmission and simulates brain functions, such as learning and memory, and their pathological states. It works by integrating elementary models of molecular processes taking place at individual synapses and incorporating them into a global model of synaptic transmission.
This unique technology developed by Rhenovia allows testing the pharmacological properties of a molecule based on its actions on physiological functions. It does this by taking account of how a molecule interacts dynamically with the whole CNS. It can handle multiple facets of a disease by searching for combinations of drugs that act simultaneously on multiple targets, and by identifying optimal combinations of two or more drug principles that together provide synergistic pharmacological effects.
Rhenovia’s platform can be applied in discovery, preclinical and clinical stages - and to drugs already on the market. Typical applications are boosting the activity of drug candidates already in clinical trials, extending the life cycle of a drug, identifying the best molecular targets for drugs under development, and evaluating effective drug combinations. One of the most promising application areas is extending the life of blockbuster drugs that are reaching the end of their patent protection. Using the Rhenovia platform, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies will be able to modify or combine the drug to produce a new patentable entity.
The company has already carried out pilot projects with Sanofi-Aventis, which have provided successful proof of concept on the pharmaceutical company’s molecules in Phase I-II for cognitive deficits, and the company expects to announce further projects that use its platform. RHEDDOS is available in various configurations to suit customer needs, from answering simple questions to joint projects involving upfront payments, milestones and royalties.
“Rhenovia’s RHEDDOS program enables pharmaceutical companies to accelerate their R&D and thus shorten time to market,” said Serge Bischoff, CEO of Rhenovia. “We are currently in discussion with a number of potential partners who are looking to improve or extend the life of their existing drugs, and we are confident that our technology will be of considerable use to these companies.”
Rhenovia will present its platform at 2009 BIO international convention in Atlanta, May 18 - 21, 2009. Rhenovia will be based at French Pavilion, booth No. 1945.
Why Biosimulation for brain diseases
Biosimulation consists in the use of computational models that provide a dynamic and quantitative description of a number of biological, pathological, and pharmacokinetic processes in order to understand complex biological processes. Biosimulation is particularly appropriate for use in CNS disease research. Unmet medical needs in this field, especially for Alzheimer’s disease, are mostly due to the fact that all brain pathologies are extremely complex, multifactorial and dynamic. Furthermore, brain diseases are most probably of multiple origins and involve separate physiological mechanisms, multiple pathways and neuronal/glial interactions. They might also affect dynamic features such as feedback/feed-forward regulations and cross-talk between extracellular and intracellular mechanisms. For these reasons, the conventional drug discovery approach followed by most pharmaceutical companies might not be sufficient to address the multiple facets of these diseases. In particular, the single-target, single-mechanism approach so suited for high-throughput screening may not result in optimal identification of candidate therapeutics.
About Rhenovia Pharma SAS
Rhenovia Pharma SAS is a biopharmaceutical company specialized in the development and optimization of drugs for Alzheimer’s and other diseases of the brain. It has developed and implemented a unique technology in a biosimulation platform. Rhenovia believes it has developed the first platform to simulate mechanisms involved in learning and memory and in a variety of brain functions related to the balance between excitation and inhibition. More than 90 per cent of drugs in this area are active in the synapse and directly or indirectly on excitation and inhibition. It is making this platform available in its RHEDDOS program, aimed at pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies wishing to extend drug life cycles, develop new drug combinations and identify new targets for therapeutic molecules.
Rhenovia was founded in 2007 to exploit technology developed at the University of Southern California (USC) for which it acquired the exclusive worldwide license. In addition to the founders, the company has built a management team that combines extensive scientific and management experience in large pharmaceutical companies. The company has raised around EUR 1 million in funding as well as various government grants and loans. Investors are principally five founders with 2.7 per cent held USC.
