NewCo News: Scripps Spinout Xcovery Sees Room for Kinase Improvement


By Trista Morrison
Staff Writer


With several kinase inhibitors already approved and next-generation versions accounting for about a third of all pharmaceutical discovery efforts, does the world really need another kinase inhibitor start-up?.

Sheridan Snyder, co-founder of Genzyme Corp. and CEO of Xcovery Inc., would argue the answer to that question is "yes."

Snyder maintained that he has "a lot of respect" for the first-generation kinase inhibitors like Gleevec (imatinib, Novartis AG), Nexavar (sorafenib, Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Bayer AG), Sutent (sunitinib, Pfizer Inc.), Tarceva (erlotinib, OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Genentech/Roche AG) and others.

Yet there is "a lot of room for improvement," Snyder said, noting that some of those molecules gained approval based on limited survival benefits despite high toxicity. "The bar for new targeted cancer treatments is very, very, very low," he said.

That's something Xcovery hopes to change. The company has eight kinase inhibitors in late preclinical development, including an ALK inhibitor designed to avoid liver toxicities and several isoform-selective PI3K inhibitors.

All of Xcovery's molecules were discovered internally by its chief scientific officer, Chris Liang, a co-inventor of Sutent and director of medicinal chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute. Snyder explained that Liang has pioneered techniques such as combining quantum physics with chemistry to create a platform for the generation of more specific, less toxic small-molecule kinase inhibitors.

Xcovery's roots trace back to Liang's early work on Sutent at biotech Sugen Inc., which was acquired by Pharmacia Corp., which in turn was acquired by Pfizer. Liang was frustrated because he hadn't had a chance to lower the molecule's toxicity profile before the final acquisition, but Pfizer "did not acquire the scientific team along with the drug - a mistake many companies make," Snyder said.

Liang continued his work to improve Sutent at Scripps, and Snyder offered to provide funding to complete the project. The result was a potent small molecule targeting all isoforms of VEGFR and PDGFR while avoiding off-target activity and reducing tissue toxicity by 95 percent.

Snyder and Liang dubbed the molecule X-82 and used it as the basis for a start-up called TyrogeneX. But Snyder soon realized that X-82 was attracting significant partnering interest, and he didn't want to see Liang's kinase platform get acquired. So the platform and all subsequent molecules were spun out in 2006 as West Palm Beach, Fla.-based Xcovery.

TyrogeneX currently is seeking $5 million in venture funding to advance X-82 toward an investigational new drug application filing. Snyder predicted the molecule will be in the clinic within a year and that the company eventually will be acquired.

Meanwhile Xcovery is seeking $5 million to advance its eight preclinical kinase inhibitors. But Snyder is not courting venture investors for this round - instead he envisions a new funding model in which Xcovery will function as a limited liability company supported by limited partners. The initial $5 million will serve to advance the first compound until it is partnered, and the partnering revenue will be used to self-fund subsequent compounds and pay dividends to the investors.

Once all compounds in the LLC are partnered, investors will have the option of walking away or re-investing in a new LLC formed around a new batch of compounds. Snyder noted that the business model could provide a "viable alternative" to venture funding for platform companies.

Partnering discussions with 11 companies are under way, Snyder said. He added that he expects most of the compounds to find partners in Phase I.


http://www.bioworld.com [Requires Registration with BioWorld.com]

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Sundia MediTech and Xcovery Announce Big Success in Drug Discovery


SHANGHAI, China, Feb. 10 /PRNewswire-Asia/ — Sundia MediTech, a CRO company based in Shanghai, China and Xcovery, a company based in Florida, U.S.A. jointly announced their 2 year collaborative success in new drug discovery at IBC's BioProcess International Conference yesterday in San Diego, USA. So far their collaboration has achieved 4 pre-clinic candidates, with 2 more candidates to be identified within the next 3 months. Dr. Xiaochuan Wang, CEO of Sundia MediTech Company and Ms. Teri A. Swift, Vice President for Business Development of Xcovery, made the announcement together.

Both of Xcovery's founders are legendary figures in the U.S. biotech industry. Mr. Sherry Snyder, CEO of the company, is a pioneer and leader of this industry with significant contributions towards its development. In his professional career, he founded different companies including the well-known biotech company Genzyme. Company CSO Dr. Chris Liang earned his reputation as a leading drug discovery expert from his leadership and contribution to the discovery of Sutent, Pfizer's leading anti-cancer drug. In recent years, he continued to achieve multiple successes in drug discovery.

In 2006, Mr. Snyder invited Dr. Liang to start a new drug discovery company Xcovery. They abandoned the old model of using internal resources to do research and utilized almost 100% CRO resources for R&D work instead. After evaluating many CRO companies, amongst more than 10 in China they selected Sundia as their CRO service provider. "We are honored to have the opportunity of providing R&D service to Xcovery," said Sundia's CEO Dr. Xiaochuan Wang. "It is Sundia's objective to provide high end CRO service with rich R&D content to our clients. We have successfully identified 12 new pre-clinic candidates for our client companies from different countries."

According to Dr. Chris Liang, the result of Xcovery's collaboration with Sundia was much better than they expected. They got 4 (possibly 6) pre-clinic products in merely 2.5 years. Compared to their initial target, the research efficiency and outcome is ten folds higher. Mr. Snyder commented: "The value of this collaboration is not only in the pre-clinic candidates we've generated, but more importantly it sets a precedent as the most efficient and economical model for new drug discovery."

About the Companies:

Xcovery is a new biotechnology company spun out from The Scripps Research Institute by Sherry Snyder (CEO) and Chris Liang (CSO), with the support of several prominent academic partners. Xcovery develops next generation kinase therapeutics for cancer and inflammatory diseases more rapidly and economically than current approaches.

Sundia MediTech Company was founded in Shanghai in 2004 by a group of veterans of the US pharmaceutical industry to provide drug discovery and pharmaceutical development CRO services to clients worldwide. Over the past 5 years, Sundia has built a strong reputation as a leading CRO Company in China.


http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=prnw.20090210.CNTU025&show_article=1

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Fruits of Biotechnology Industry Begin to Ripen in South Florida


Florida's biotech industry is beginning to take shape after an investment of more than $500 million, but experts say there's still more needed to nurture its growth.

Two major gatherings were held in Palm Beach County within the span of a week: the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County's Bioscience Stakeholder's Meeting on March 29 in West Palm Beach and the Enterprise Development Corp. (EDC) Biotech 2007 conference on April 4 in Boca Raton.

Among the highlights was hearing from the newly arrived Sheridan Snyder, president and CEO of BioCatalyst, a biotech investment and business management firm that moved to West Palm Beach with two of its biotech startups. He co-founded Genzyme Corp. in Boston in 1980 and the company went on to have 8,500 employees and a market capitalization of $20 billion. Snyder said he originally bought Genzyme stock at 4 cents a share and sold most of it at $62 a share.

"You have the science in place to build those type of companies," he told the BDB's audience, referring to Genzyme. "You need to translate the science into products."

He's attempting to do that with Xcovery, a company he formed from the research of Scripps Research Institute scientist Chris Liang. The company is developing drugs based on a method called kinase inhibitors. The first clinical trial, expected to start in 18 months, would be for cancer or arthritis, he said.

Snyder has also brought the headquarters of Molecular MD here from Oregon. That company aims to use genetic tests to determine the best treatments for patients.

Another development is the union between Scripps Florida in Jupiter and IBM's division in Boca Raton to fight avian flu and other pandemic illnesses. IBM has been running ads to promote Project Checkmate, which is seeking local and federal funds for the project.

Pete Martinez, VP of IBM's Boca Raton campus, said the project will foster partnerships with world-class institutions, such as Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, and bring some of the best scientific minds to town.

IBM and Scripps are also partnering with other local institutions to form a center for bioinformatics - the use of information technology and computer sciences to solve molecular biological problems. This process is a key to advanced drug discovery using the vast amount of information of the human genome.

Formed a few months ago, the Florida Bioinformatics Consortium includes academic partners Florida Atlantic University, University of Miami, Florida International University and Nova Southeastern University. On the nonprofit side, it also has the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies in St. Lucie County and Boca Raton Community Hospital.

The universities and IBM will combine their computing power to conduct joint research, said Dr. Larry Lemanski, FAU VP for research. He said it would begin lobbying for $20 million in federal funding to get the center going.

Meanwhile, Torrey Pines is set to begin hiring its staff to place in FAU facilities in Fort Pierce this summer. President Dr. Richard Houghten said he would make his unique library and assays for genetic screening available to Florida universities.

Yet, there are some holes.

IBM's Martinez said there is a lack of scientific workers here to fill jobs he is to create.

Aaron Davidson, managing director of nearly-$4 billion venture capital fund HIG Capital, of Miami, said Florida has an abundance of angel investors to support new life science companies, but they often aren't sophisticated enough to make the companies attractive for venture capital funding.

Snyder said Florida does not have enough collaboration among scientists, clinicians and entrepreneurs compared to the major biotech hubs. He would like to see the state use its incentive fund to attract a clinical research organization, as opposed to another basic research institute like Scripps.

Although the Germany-based Max Planck Society does basic research, Snyder said it would be worth the state funds because it's among the top research organizations. Max Planck has been in contact with the BDB.

BDB President Kelly Smallridge said seven life science organizations are considering Palm Beach County. They are looking for vacant sites to put up facilities ranging from 25,000 to 100,000 square feet.

All are looking at some type of public incentive. With so much interest, Smallridge said the $100 million in statewide business incentives Gov. Charlie Crist is proposing to attract life science organizations is not enough.

Bob Rohrlack, senior VP of the business retention and recruitment division of Enterprise Florida, said this will be a tough year for incentive funding because state legislatures are asking them to tighten their belts so they can lower the budget.


http://southflorida.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2007/04/09/story7.html

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Xcovery Fierce 15 Winner Based: West Palm Beach, FL Founded: 2007 Website: www.xcovery.com

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