Amporin Pharmaceuticals receives CHF 150,000 from Venture Kick
Amporin Pharmaceuticals has received an investment of CHF 150,000 from Venture Kick to advance the development of amyloid pore inhibitors for the treatment of fatal degenerative diseases.
Over 50 fatal degenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, type II diabetes and many rare neurodegenerative diseases, are linked to protein misfolding and aggregation. These diseases affect more than half a billion people worldwide and claim 3.6 million lives each year, costing society around USD 3 billion a year. To date, there are no effective treatments that could halt or reverse the progressive degeneration.
Amporin Pharmaceuticals aims to develop a new class of small molecule drugs that block and eliminate toxic soluble oligomers and pores in cell membranes. These toxic substances accumulate and destroy cells by making holes in the cell membranes, leading to loss of homeostasis and progressive degeneration. The company plans to develop and license the first effective, acute oral disease-modifying treatments for up to six major diseases, including Alzheimer's disease and type II diabetes, with an initial focus on Parkinson's disease and ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).
Parkinson's alone affects around one million people in the US and around ten million people worldwide. The current global drug market for Parkinson's disease is approximately USD 6 billion per year, with a potential market of USD 15 billion per year for the first effective disease-modifying treatments.
The CHF 150,000 from Venture Kick will enable the company to establish its core activities and create a comprehensive in-vitro data package to validate and demonstrate the unique benefits of its technology to potential investors and licensing partners.
Amporin's founding team includes CEO Dr. Kelvin Stott, CSO Dr. Hervé Schaffhauser and CMO Prof. Daniel Umbricht, who each have more than 20 years of experience in CNS drug development and in leading research and development at several large pharmaceutical companies and biotech start-ups.
"Venture Kick has been instrumental in helping us build a world-class company with a world-changing technology," emphasizes Kelvin Stott, co-founder and CEO of Amporin Pharmaceuticals. "Without Venture Kick, we would not have had the opportunity to turn our potential into reality."
Source: www.venturekick.ch
