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Sera Prognostics is a leading proteomic and bioinformatics company dedicated to improving the lives of women and babies through precision biomarker-based tests designed to enhance pregnancy care. Sera’s vision is to deliver pivotal information in early pregnancy to physicians, to help them to improve the health of their patients and reduce costs of healthcare delivery. Sera’s PreTRM® Test reports to a physician the individualized risk of a pregnant woman to deliver prematurely, enabling earlier proactive interventions in patients with higher risk. Rigorous clinical validation of PreTRM® Test performance (accuracy of predicting premature delivery) was reported in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology in 2016 in a U.S. cohort of 5,501 patients across 11 centers. Preterm birth is defined as any birth before 37 weeks gestation and is a leading cause of illness and death in newborns. The 2020 March of Dimes Report Card shows that of nearly 4 million babies born annually in the U.S., more than one in ten is born prematurely. Prematurity is associated with a significantly increased risk of major long-term medical complications, including learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, chronic respiratory illness, intellectual disability, seizures, vision and hearing loss, and can generate significant cost throughout the lives of affected children. The annual U.S. health care costs to manage complications of prematurity were estimated at $31.5B for 2015. Sera is also developing a robust pipeline of innovative tests focused on other complications of pregnancy. Using its advanced proprietary mass spectrometry and bioinformatics platform technologies, Sera detects biologically important protein expression differences to build high performing predictions of risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes (including preterm birth, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, growth restriction, and others).
Based in San Diego and founded in 2013, Omniome is a biotechnology company developing a proprietary DNA sequencing platform capable of delivering unsurpassed sequencing accuracy. Backed by leading life sciences venture investors and a proven management team, Omniome`s vision is to be the most trusted DNA sequencing platform and leader in clinical sequencing. We are a quality-focused, start-up environment where development thrives. Our culture is inspiring, fun and consists of a talented team of individuals who propose innovative ideas keeping collaboration a top priority.
MicuRx mission is to discover and develop safer and more convenient antibiotics to combat drug-resistant bacterial infections. Multi-drug resistant (MDR) infections represent a major global threat to the public health, routinely forcing the use of antibiotics with high incidence of adverse effects. To combat resistant infections, physicians may increase dosing of antibiotics, or resort to less safe agents, pushing the safety envelope. Thus, healthcare providers and regulatory agencies increasingly face a difficult choice of balancing the risk of infection against unacceptably high adverse event rates from an effective but relatively toxic antibiotic. For example, in July 2016, FDA imposed a new labeling warning on the toxicity of fluoroquinolones, further restricting the use of this essential class, exemplified by anti-pseudomonal agent ciprofloxacin. Anti-MRSA agent linezolid (Zyvox®) is often used beyond its approved 14-day therapy, resulting in several myelosuppression-associated adverse effects listed in the black box warning for this important drug. MicuRx is addressing the critical need for effective but safer therapeutics by designing novel new compounds with reduced toxicity and adverse events while maintaining excellent clinical efficacy.
TruSpine is a medical device company focused on entering the $10.2 billion (US) per annum spinal device market. The Company is developing uniquely disruptive technologies to revolutionise the spinal stabilisation market, commencing with three flagship pioneering, spinal devices. The Cervi-LOK™ (for the cervical and upper thoracic spine), GRASP Laminoplasty (a treatment for decompression of the spinal cord) & Faci-LOK™ (for the lumbar and lower thoracic spine). These unique devices represent a paradigm shift in spinal fixation, by providing exceptional stabilization while not altering the bony anatomy such as screws, staples or other devices which currently dominate the spinal market. The TruSpine philosophy and mantra is one of preserving nature`s design, and as such, the devices have been designed to be safer, faster and easier to implant. The potential cost savings to patients, insurers and surgeons can be significant. The technology is minimally intrusive, minimally invasive and reversable. The first product to market will be Cervi-LOK™, and will be the first posterior cervical stabilisation device in the world which fully preserves the boney anatomy of the spine. TruSpine has a phased product development strategy, and is planning to commence initial product marketing between late 2020 to early 2021. The overall aim is to establish the TruSpine products as the go-to solutions for the spinal stabilisation market. In addition to the three flagship platform products currently under development, the company also has a pipeline of additional and complementary spinal products.
Applied Molecular Therapeutics (AMT), a public biopharmaceutical company based in South San Francisco, California, is committed to developing novel, oral biological therapeutics to treat severe autoimmune, metabolic and inflammatory diseases. AMT is leveraging its propriety technology platforms to create gastrointestinal (GI)-select therapeutics that harness naturally occurring transport and targeting mechanisms to cross the protective barrier of the intestinal epithelium (IE). Once across the IE, the therapeutics gain privileged access to the immune cell-rich environment of the GI tissue as well as the hepatic portal system and downstream systemic circulation. With this privileged access, AMT`s goal is to develop transformative new oral therapeutic treatment options that offer patients greater efficacy and tolerability than available with today`s therapeutics. AMT has a robust pipeline of oral biologic product opportunities, including AMT-101 which is currently in Phase 1b clinical development for the treatment of adults with ulcerative colitis (UC). AMT-101 is a novel, gut-selective, investigational oral biologic fusion protein of interleukin 10 (IL-10), an anti-inflammatory cytokine. Derived from AMT`s proprietary platforms, AMT-101 is engineered to cross the selective barrier of the IE and enhance localized IL-10 directly within the immune-cell rich environment of GI tissue where up to 75 percent of immune cells reside. This direct targeting of the immune system creates the potential for AMT-101 to address, at its point of origin, the immune dysregulation that gives rise to UC and other inflammatory bowel diseases, and restore immune homeostasis with minimal systemic exposure and potentially fewer adverse events compared to systemic administration of IL-10. AMT has amassed a broad global IP portfolio surrounding its multiple technology platforms and therapeutic programs.