Achievement of milestones release 2nd tranche of funding
Diepenbeek (Belgium), September 15, 2010 – Amakem announces today that its lead ROCK inhibitors are efficacious in several relevant animal models, thereby completing the milestones for releasing the 2nd tranche of its seed investment.
Amakem was founded by Dirk Leysen (CSO) and Olivier Defert (ROCK program manager), both former Devgen researchers. They were joined by Jack Elands (CEO). The company is focused on its “Localized Drug Action” platform, making kinases drugable by reducing or eliminating side effects caused by kinase inhibition in non target organs.
“Kinase inhibitors often fail in clinical trials due to a limited therapeutic window. Our ROCK inhibitor programs for COPD and glaucoma show that our platform can render kinases such as ROCK drugable. With this vital data Amakem is poised to play a significant role in auto-immune and inflammatory based diseases and moves the company in a good position for its next round of financing planned for the end of this year” says Jack Elands.
“Although ROCK is a key player in inflammation its cardiovascular effects have made ROCK difficult to target beyond glaucoma and high blood pressure. Our Localized Drug Action based lead compounds show that inflammation and bronchoconstriction can be tackled by ROCK inhibition without causing cardiovascular side effects” stresses Dirk Leysen. He adds that “Amakem’s ROCK inhibitors for glaucoma are unique as they do not show any sign of hyperemia, a side effect that troubles all standard ROCK inhibitors in development for glaucoma”.
Chris Buyse (CFO Thrombogenics), chairman of the board adds: “We are very pleased with the rapid progress Amakem has made. The management team and the investors are very well aligned, which makes that the company is well positioned for its planned upcoming investment round.
About Amakem NV
Amakem NV is developing kinase inhibitors with "localized drug action" to treat diseases, such as COPD and post operative scarring and inflammation of the eye, where inflammation or auto-immunity play an important role. Amakem's localized drug action platform is developed to avoid the systemic side effects seen so often with kinase inhibitors.
Amakem is an early stage biopharmaceutical company based in Belgium and located in the life sciences incubator “BioVille” on the campus of the University of Hasselt. The company is focused on the development of promising and innovative near clinical or clinical small molecule drugs.
Early 2010 Amakem closed a seed financing round of 1.5M€ led by LRM with further participation from Vinnof, Life Science Research Partners and a contribution in kind of assets, intellectual property and know-how of Devgen’s former pharma division. Amakem was founded to continue the development of its unique, locally acting kinase inhibitor concept (localized drug action) that the founders embarked upon during their Devgen tenure.
For more information, please contact
Amakem NV
Jack Elands, CEO
jack.elands@amakem.com
+32 474 828 580