Executive Summary
A preview of the emerging health care companies profiled in the current issue of Start-Up. This month's profile group, Anti-Angiogenesis, features profiles of Cell Matrix Inc., Kereos Inc., MBT Munich Biotechnology GMBH, Oncology Sciences Corp. and Pivotal BioSciences Inc. Plus these Selected Start-Ups across Health Care: CardioVention Inc., MedEView Inc. and XenoPort Inc.
A preview of the emerging health care companies profiled in the
current issue ofSTART-UP: Windhover's Review of Emerging Medical
Ventures
Grouped Start-Ups
This month's profile group: Anti-Angiogenesis
Cell Matrix Inc.has begun to develop humanized
antibodies that target human denatured collagen that is exposed as
a result of extra cellular matrix remodeling, an early step in the
angiogenesis cascade. The company is focused on developing
therapeutics for major solid tumor cancers and melanoma, and plans
to outlicense non-cancer applications of its platform.
Kereos Inc. 's stable targeted
nanoparticles can deliver both imaging agents and drugs to specific
sites in the body. Although the company's technology has the
potential to be a broad platform, its first product will an MRI
imaging agent that targets the receptor expressed by the special
angiogenic capillaries associated with solid tumors in breast
cancer.
MBT Munich Biotechnology GMBH is
developing cancer diagnostics and therapeutics that it hopes will
allow early tumor detection along with localized delivery of
cytotoxic compounds to tumor sites. Its technology is based around
the encapsulation of imaging agents and therapeutic products into
positively charged liposomes that bind preferentially to angiogenic
blood vessels supplying tumors, without leaking out of the blood
supply into other tissues and organs.
Founded in close affiliation with Denver's AMC Cancer
Research Center, Oncology Sciences Corp. is taking a
natural approach to fighting prostate cancer. It is focusing on
preclinical development of an endogenous angiogenesis inhibitor as
well as other natural substances that work through anti-angiogenic
and additional mechanisms.
Pivotal BioSciences Inc. is
developing less toxic cancer therapies, initially focusing on
contortrostatin, a novel anti-angiogenic agent derived from snake
venom.
Start-Ups across Health Care
CardioVention Inc. aims to provide
reliable respiratory support during both stopped heart and assisted
beating heart surgical procedures without the adverse effects
caused by traditional cardiopulmonary bypass systems. Its CORx
System minimizes the amount of foreign surface area over which
blood must pass, and it is operated with only minimal priming,
eliminating the damaging effects of hemodilution.
MedEView Inc. 's web-based
technology marries radiological images and reports to other
patient-specific information—medical literature, treatment
protocols, payer formularies, ads for drugs relevant to the
patient's condition—and pushes it to the desktops of
referring physicians at the time of diagnosis.
XenoPort Inc. wants to increase the
oral bioavailability, therefore the efficacy, of small- and
large-molecule therapeutics by harnessing the body's active
transport system. It will combine existing drugs with proprietary
transport modules that engage the pathways normally used by the
body for the uptake and distribution of nutrients.
