Tag Archives: chemicals

Innovative Drug Discovery Business, Biosortia Pharmaceuticals, Lands Two Health Care Veterans

Kurt Dieck formerly SVP of Strategy and Business Execution at Cardinal Health, will lead early stage drug discovery business at Biosortia Pharmaceuticals. Dieck was named President and CEO in November 2012 and has quickly identified other key executives, including Dr. Guy Carter, former Natural Product head at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, as his Chief Science Officer. In conjunction, other collaboration partners have joined the team, including NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), NCI (National Cancer Institute) and key universities, to strategically accelerate the development of novel drug leads in the therapeutic areas of cancer, infectious diseases, inflammation and neurological disorders. Biosortia Pharmaceuticals has seen promising early results with dozens of novel compounds having already been requested, and are under evaluation with NCI and Eli Lilly.

Dieck has spent nearly 30 years in healthcare, including 18 years at Arthur Andersen as a global equity partner and then 10 years with Cardinal Health, a Fortune 20 public company, as a senior executive; there he worked with a broad spectrum of partners, including brand pharmaceutical manufacturers, throughout the supply chain. Dr. Guy Carter has over 30 years of experience working in pharmaceutical R&D, primarily in the discovery and development of microbial natural products. He previously was the leader of natural products drug discovery at Wyeth Research, as head of the Chemical Technologies Department.

“Kurt and Guy make a great team. Their complementary Pharma experiences and backgrounds create great opportunities to accelerate Biosortia’s objective to become the premier, aquatic natural products company with a primary focus in drug discovery,” says Ross Youngs, Biosortia’s Founder and Chairman. “Kurt and Guy bring a wealth of research and business experience along with deep industry relationships in building successful Pharma partnerships. Everyone involved with this young biotech is excited about the future.”

Industry observers have commented that late-stage R&D pipelines are not providing Pharma with the desired revenue growth the market is expecting. Therefore, large Pharma is evolving the way it performs R&D in order to optimize efficiency and to boost patent cliff defenses. These changes require shifting from relying solely on in-house chemistry-based R&D to acquiring and licensing external technologies and natural products based compounds in various stages of development. Biosortia’s ability to supply novel, highly active and potent compounds with drug-like characteristics will increase the productivity and success rate for Pharma as well as reduce the overall cost of the discovery process. The cost to discover, develop and launch a new drug is estimated to reach nearly $3B per drug by 2015. Biosortia’s business model is designed specifically to support Pharma’s needs.

“With nearly unlimited microorganisms (3.7 nonillion), the aquatic environment and its consortia represent an extraordinary opportunity…a new frontier, to access extremely potent and chemically diverse secondary metabolites with drug-like properties with unique mechanisms of action never researched before,” said Dieck. In describing the opportunity, Dieck goes on to say, “Biosortia is on the cutting edge of natural product discovery
and has the capabilities to deliver on its aspiration. Our powerful natural products research team, led by Dr. Guy Carter, in partnership with NOAA’s Dr. Peter Moeller, a leader in aquatic natural products research, has the experience and know-how to decipher the complex unexplored environment in a very efficient manner leveraging all the current state of the art instrumentation. The need for more efficient and effective approaches to drug discovery has never been more important. Biosortia’s innovative technologies, deep research skills and key relationships will efficiently provide thousands of unique natural products as candidates for drug discovery at a time when Pharma is in critical need for “high quality shots on goal.”

“Aquatic microbial consortia are a rich source of metabolically active organisms including microalgae, bacteria, fungi and their secondary metabolites,” states Carter. “Owing to the competitive nature of their habitat, chemical investigations of microbial consortia reveal unique structurally diversified natural products that are responsible for signaling and self-defense that have potential as therapeutics with novel mechanisms of action. Since they have been pre-optimized by nature, these compounds are typically closer to a drug candidate than a synthetic lead, thus requiring less optimization and shorter time when found as ‘hits’ in screening programs.”

The team has also focused on agreements with strategic collaboration partners as vital components to the strategy. Biosortia has recently entered into several collaboration agreements with NOAA, Analyticon and exclusive harvesting relationships, just to name a few. Several others will be advanced by the end of January. Biosortia’s cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with NOAA’s Center for Human Health Risk at Hollings Marine Laboratory provides a 5-year framework for research and development regarding the analysis and purification of novel bioactive compounds. According to NOAA’s Technology Partnerships Office, “Success will result in the commercial development of new and unique chemical compounds from the sea which have benefits to human health, either through disease prevention or new treatments for disease.”

Dr. Peter Moeller, NOAA’s Research Scientist who leads the Toxins Natural Products Program stated after analyzing fractions of Biosortia’s biomass, “Coupling NOAA’s mission of characterizing toxins affecting environmental and/or human health with Biosortia’s drug discovery focus turns one man’s toxin into another’s chemotherapeutic. The microorganisms analyzed in the Biosortia biomass identified more unique activity than I have seen in my 30 year career. The volumes achieved from a single harvest delivered an equivalent of 30 years of accumulation. This could materially change the landscape for natural products drug discovery research.”

As of December 31, 2012, Biosortia has identified more than 30 bioactive candidate compounds (hits) from a fresh water eutrophic lake consortium. Therapeutic areas of focus include treatments for cancer, infectious diseases, inflammation and neurological disorders. In addition, more than a dozen of its patent protected compounds are in initial evaluation stage within Eli Lilly’s Open Innovation Drug Discovery Program.

Dieck states, “Looking forward, it is with great optimism. We have a great team built around mutual respect, deep experience, and a desire to succeed and make a difference. We are aligning with the right partners and collaborators to execute our strategy with speed and discipline to provide Pharma with much high quality & diverse compounds vs. “me-too” drugs than they have had in the past 10 years. We are excited about what this company can accomplish, not only for its shareholders but also for the millions of people who have been diagnosed with various forms of chronic diseases who are looking for Pharma to identify better ways to help them extend their lives or live a more productive life. Biosortia can play a big role in identifying compounds that can help Pharma achieve these goals. I am looking forward to the challenge and opportunity to build an industry leading drug discovery company.”

Via EPR Network
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No Shots! No Medication! Long Beach, California Allergy Sufferers Relieved With New Laser Technology

AllergiCare™ Relief Centers of Long Beach www.AllergiCare.com/clinics/longbeach opened last week and patients have already seen tremendous success with the clinic’s new state-of-the-art laser technology.

The new technique, called “immune conditioning”, that is offered by the clinics is unique in that there are no scratch tests, allergy shots or medication involved. Instead, computer technology and laser therapy are used to eliminate negative reactions to what would ordinarily be a harmless substance.

“What makes our method of diagnosis and treatment different from other available treatments for allergy symptoms, such as allergy shots and medication,” says Long Beach clinic director Chris Turner, DC, “is that this technique enables us to better identify the specific allergen or sensitivity from our database of over 10,000 different substances. Through this identification, which is enabled by our unique computer system, we can relieve the patient’s sensitivities much more precisely, which in turn provides us with greater results”.

AllergiCare™ Relief Centers’ system assists the practitioner in the diagnosis and relief of allergy symptoms in a non-invasive, drug-free environment. This system has been shown effective with all types of allergies, including seasonal symptoms related to hay fever, pollen, grasses and trees; environmental substances such as pollutants, chemicals, dust and dust mites; food allergens such as fruit, dairy, and nuts; and pet allergens among others. AllergiCare™ Relief Centers addresses the problem at its source rather than just treating the symptoms.

“An allergy is simply an inappropriate response developed by your body as a result of some negative interaction with a certain substance” Dr. Turner explains. “This programmed response triggers a reaction within your body. These reactions may include sneezing, runny nose, itching, watery eyes, headaches and difficulty breathing. Other symptomatic diagnoses such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome, asthma, autoimmune conditions, chronic fatigue syndrome, psoriasis, acid reflux, fibromyalgia, and autism have also been very closely linked to underlying allergic reactions to various substances. Once a sensitivity to a particular substance is identified, our system works to neutralize that negative response so that future exposure to that substance no longer triggers these irritating reactions.”

Many patients notice significant results after receiving just a single treatment. As each treatment addresses only one substance category, allergies to multiple substances may require multiple treatments. The cost per treatment is very affordable when compared to other methods.


AllergiCareâ„¢ Relief Centers of Long Beach
www.AllergiCare.com/clinics/longbeach is located in Long Beach, California at 3530 Atlantic Ave., Suite 101. For more information, to make an appointment, or for a list of other AllergiCareâ„¢ Relief Centers locations, call 562-595-5949 or visit www.allergicare.com/clinics/longbeach

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Disclaimer
Due to the unpredictable nature of allergies, sensitivities and the immune system, AllergiCareâ„¢ Relief Centers cannot guarantee any results, as is the case with all forms of healthcare. AllergiCareâ„¢ Relief Centers also cannot guarantee that new allergies or sensitivities will not develop in the future. While AllergiCareâ„¢ Relief Centers can treat most forms of allergies and sensitivities, some case do not respond to the treatment. AllergiCareâ„¢ Relief Centers does not treat cases of anaphylaxis.

Via EPR Network
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