Research Bridge Partners—a not-for-profit that enhances the societal and economic returns on America’s investment in research universities by bridging mid-continent university innovators and commercialization resources nationally—announced the investment of seed capital in Eradivir, Inc.
| AUSTIN, Texas, April 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Research Bridge Partners—a not-for-profit that enhances the societal and economic returns on America’s investment in research universities by bridging mid-continent university innovators and commercialization resources nationally—announced the investment of seed capital in Eradivir, Inc. A spin-out from Purdue University, Eradivir was co-founded by the brother/brother tandem of Philip S. Low, the Ralph C. Corley Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, and Martin Low, former CEO of On Target Laboratories and the co-founder of seven companies. Building on its extraordinary track record of inventing non-immunological targeting ligands and optimizing those ligands to carry drugs to specific targets, Eradivir has designed two ligands with high specificity and avidity for a unique domain of the spike protein found on most coronaviruses including COVID-19. “The current leading targeting approaches use monoclonal antibodies to ‘decorate’ the virus and stimulate the body’s immune system to attack the virus and infected cells,” said Philip S. Low. “However, there is evidence that over-stimulating the immune system against this virus can cause clinical problems in late-stage COVID-19 infections, including death by cytokine storm. Fortunately, our technology can take advantage of the body’s immune system with little concern for overstimulation.” Martin Low added: “Because of our targeting capabilities we can deliver an optimal payload specifically to the virus and potentially host cell with little or no safety concerns.” Research Bridge Partners’ initial program-related investment of $100,000, which is the first seed capital raised by Eradivir, will be used to generate additional data demonstrating the validity of these ligands and their degree of optimization for targeting the coronavirus. This validation and optimization exercise will either confirm the potential of these ligands against COVID-19 or will invalidate the opportunity. “The scientific team has a proven track record of building commercially successful targeting ligands, including Endocyte, which Novartis purchased in 2018 for $2.1 billion,” said Isaac Barchas, co-founder and CEO of Research Bridge Partners. “Since early March launch, the team suspended its parallel efforts in influenza, which have show exceptionally strong results in animal models, and has since designed the two ligands with high specificity to coronavirus protein spike.” About Research Bridge Partners About Eradivir
SOURCE Research Bridge Partners |
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