Vyant Bio and OrganoTherapeutics announced a new partnership between them, with plans to advance research and development efforts in the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease.
Vyant Bio and OrganoTherapeutics announced a new partnership with plans to advance research and development efforts in the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease.
The collaboration is significant, as there is a large unmet need for Parkinson’s therapies. The deal brings together each company’s team of experts in human-derived cells, high-throughput biology and chemistry and machine-based therapeutic design. The goal is to discover and create new drugs that can address symptoms and ultimately treat Parkinson’s disease.
“The specific genetic and environmental causes in most Parkinson’s patients are unknown. By focusing initially on disease-linked genetic mutations, we plan to identify common causes and potential therapeutic approaches that can be expanded into the much larger patient population. We look forward to integrating our approaches with Vyant Bio,” Jens Schwamborn, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of OrganoTherapeutics, said in a statement.
Vyant Bio is a biotechnology firm that focuses on complex neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases through its AnalytiX machine learning technology, while OrganoTherapeutics develops organoids that address PD pathology using 3D-organoid disease models from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Aside from in vitro disease modeling, OrganoTherapeutics’ expertise includes artificial intelligence support analytics, visualization and interpretation.
The partnership will focus on potential therapies that rescue the PD phenotype by developing disease-linked, clinically translatable assays and biomarkers through various biochemical, cellular and molecular methods. This strengthens Vyant Bio’s therapeutics platform, which also includes programs that target CDKL5 Deficiency Disorders and Rett Syndrome.
“We know that therapies for diseases that affect the CNS are difficult to discover: it requires meaningful innovation and exceptional scientific expertise to tackle. This collaboration is another in a series of strategic moves to focus our efforts while accelerating our position in drug discovery through the use of technologies that allow insight into human biology early in the discovery of CNS drugs,” noted Jay Roberts, the CEO of Vyant Bio, in the same announcement.
The financial terms of the collaboration were not revealed.
In an earlier statement to shareholders, Vyant Bio CEO Jay Roberts said that 2022 is a strong year for the company, bringing with it some $20 million in cash and an expert scientific team to advance its growth plans. The company hired former Amgen scientific director Robert T. Fremeau, Ph.D., as its new chief scientific officer to lead drug discovery and development initiatives.
“Vyant Bio is now transitioning from the infancy into the early growth stage of innovative drug discovery – traditional discovery is slow and expensive; however, we are among those companies leading the way to reduce time and money, and meaningfully improve therapeutic effectiveness through experimenting on human-derived cells very early in the process rather than waiting for drugs to get into patients in costly and time-consuming clinical trials,” said Roberts.
Vyant has scheduled an investor conference for March 30, during which more details about its partnership with OrganoTherapeutics and other company milestones are expected to be discussed.
