Torrey Pines Investment's i2020 Accelerator to Advance Snap Bio's Selective Kinase Inhibitor Platform for Treatment of Endodermal Cancers and Autoimmune Diseases
SAN DIEGO, Nov. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Torrey Pines Investment announced today that Snap Bio, Inc. has joined its early drug discovery ecosystem through its i2020 Accelerator specialty investment framework, which includes a three-way partnership with ChemDiv, Inc. Under the terms of the agreement, Snap Bio will leverage ChemDiv's unique integrated discovery platform, while Torrey Pines Investment will deploy its financial and BD&L capabilities to help Snap Bio advance their highly potent and selective kinase inhibitors for treating endodermal cancers and autoimmune diseases.
"The i2020 investment vehicle was recently introduced to accelerate early stage research programs with differentiated biology and established development paradigms towards advanced leads and clinical candidates," comments Ronald Demuth, President of Torrey Pines Investment. "Snap Bio's platform successfully integrates structure-based drug design with advanced synthesis and synthetic biology, including proprietary cell-free-biosynthesis (CFB) technology. This unique approach allows Snap Bio to modify scaffolds in ways that otherwise would not be possible, optimizing major properties such as selectivity, potency, bioavailability, and metabolic stability, which are required to improve efficacy and reduce toxicity of current treatments for endodermal cancer and autoimmune diseases. We firmly believe we found a strong partner and a great fit for our i2020 portfolio."
"By developing highly potent and selective kinase inhibitors, we can target the root cause of disease and improve the efficacy of treatments, while limiting side effects for patients," – comments Mark Burk, President and CEO at Snap Bio. "i2020 aligns well with our overall goals, since it provides a robust network of relevant R&D, business strategy and scientific resources, together with an agile business model and flexible partnering options. Moreover, we are excited by our new relationship with ChemDiv, who will serve as a strategic partner in our efforts to deliver game-changing medicines. We are looking forward to the fruits of this three-way partnership, and we believe that our collective efforts will streamline the development of more effective therapeutic options for challenging diseases, such as endodermal cancers which often present very low survival rates."
"We at ChemDiv are happy to be involved in such an exciting multifaceted project, where we can really put our R&D capabilities to use and help partners, such as Snap Bio, rapidly advance from target ID to lead optimization and beyond," adds Roman Timakhov, Research Director at ChemDiv. "Our aim is to fully utilize our integrated platform and expertise in drug discovery to deliver quality leads and clinical candidates to our partners."
About Torrey Pines Investment and i2020
Torrey Pines Investment (San Diego, CA) is a specialty life-science investment firm that invests in development stage molecules, diagnostics, and therapeutics in areas of high unmet medical need. [http://www.torreypinesinv.com/] By rapidly de-risking novel science and enriching partner pipelines with best-in-class molecules, i2020 helps accelerate early stage drug discovery platforms towards advanced lead and clinical candidate level within a two-year framework. i2020's vast scientific and global resource network tailored specifically to the needs of early drug development programs allows it to take on projects in a wide array of therapeutic areas, from immunology to infectious diseases and beyond. By successfully leveraging agile development principles and flexible partnering business models, i2020 plans to co-create 15 diverse drug discovery programs in 2018. [www.i2020accelerator.com]
About Snap Bio
Snap Bio is a preclinical development company focused on delivering highly potent and selective kinase inhibitors as first-in-class treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases. Snap Bio's unique approach starts with extremely potent kinase inhibitors that have been evolved in Nature over millions of years. Rather than relying on conventional medicinal chemistry to modify these privileged scaffolds, Snap Bio employs its breakthrough synthetic biology and cell-free biosynthesis platform to generate scaffold diversity and optimize the properties of our inhibitors. In this fashion, Snap Bio is able to make thousands of previously inaccessible analogs in hours, thus enabling rapid SAR analysis against the hundreds of kinase crystal structures available to date. This approach has been validated through our lead program involving SNP-118, a potent and selective kinase inhibitor that disrupts the growth and survival mechanisms of endodermal cancers, including malignancies of the liver, stomach, colon, and pancreas. Snap Bio has assembled an outstanding team of experts, advisors, and partners to advance its promising endodermal cancer program, along with an earlier stage asset targeting a kinase in the T cell receptor signaling pathway for treating autoimmune diseases. [www.snap-bio.com]
About ChemDiv
ChemDiv is a recognized global leader in drug discovery solutions. Over the past 25+ years the ChemDiv team has delivered hundreds of leads, drug candidates and new drug approvals in the areas of CNS, oncology, virology, inflammation, immunology, cardio and metabolic diseases to its pharma, biotech and academic partners around the globe. ChemDiv's integrated drug discovery and risk-share collaborative platforms allow for an accelerated, cost-effective R&D process aimed at rapidly bringing a project from target ID to Phase 3 clinical candidate and beyond. [www.chemdiv.com]
CONTACT: Ronald Demuth, rdemuth@torreypinesinv.com, 858-724-0581
SOURCE Torrey Pines Investment
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/torrey-pines-investments-i2020-accelerator-to-advance-snap-bios-selective-kinase-inhibitor-platform-for-treatment-of-endodermal-cancers-and-autoimmune-diseases-300750928.html
