Snap Bio and i2020 Accelerator (Torrey Pines Investment) Reach Lead Compounds Milestone for Pediatric Oncology and Advanced Liver Cancer Programs
Snap Bio, Inc. and Torrey Pines Investment (TPI) announced today that their joint early drug discovery program within the framework of the i2020 Accelerator has resulted in achieving the projected milestone in developing several small molecule lead candidates for treatment of Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and Hepatoblastoma. The milestone is marked with an outstanding selectivity profile and promising overall animal data in rodents for the lead candidates.This timeline-driven achievement was enabled through the synergistic efforts of TPI's i2020 Accelerator network, which includes ChemDiv, Inc. with its pertinent technical life-sciences expertise and its unique integrated drug discovery platform."The i2020 Accelerator was created to help take early stage research programs with differentiated biology and established development paradigms to the level of advanced leads and clinical candidates," comments Ronald Demuth, President of Torrey Pines Investment. "We were excited to start working with Snap Bio, their unique platform that integrates structure-based drug design and advanced synthetic biology allows for scaffold modification to be taken to a new level with improved optimization for all the key properties of highly effective and selective treatments. Snap Bio has been a great fit for our i2020 Accelerator portfolio, and we are glad to be seeing the first fruits of our collaboration thanks to the collective efforts of our global net of partners, including ChemDiv.""With the help of TPI and the i2020 Accelerator, Snap Bio has discovered novel bispecific inhibitors, opening the door to a platform that offers small molecules with unique combinations of well-defined activities," comments Mark Burk, President and CEO at Snap Bio. "Bispecific small molecules can simultaneously and selectively inhibit two mechanistically distinct targets, which can provide important polypharmacological benefits, such as higher efficacy, fewer side effects, and reduced drug resistance. In addition, relative to drug combination therapies, bispecific inhibitors can target multiple disease pathways without pharmacokinetic disparity, leading to easier, faster, cheaper, and lower risk clinical trials."About Torrey Pines Investment and i2020Torrey 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 platform helps accelerate early stage drug discovery platforms towards advanced lead and clinical candidate level within a two-year framework. i2020 Accelerator'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 Accelerator plans to create and invest in multiple small-molecule early drug discovery programs. [www.i2020accelerator.com]About Snap BioSnap Bio is a preclinical development company focused on delivering first-in-class treatments to help patients suffering from challenging cancers. Snap Bio's unique approach starts with extremely potent inhibitors that have been evolved in Nature over millions of years. Rather than relying solely on conventional medicinal chemistry to modify these privileged scaffolds, Snap Bio employs its breakthrough synthetic biology platform to generate scaffold diversity and rapidly optimize selectivity and other properties important for clinical success. This approach has been validated through our lead program involving highly potent and selective inhibitors that disrupt multiple genetically-defined cancer growth and survival pathways. Snap Bio has assembled an outstanding team of experts, advisors, and partners to advance its promising liver cancer program and to expand efforts to address other challenging cancer types in which its lead molecules already have shown strong efficacy. [www.snap-bio.com]About ChemDivChemDiv 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]
