A Juventas Therapeutics spin-off is working to simplify therapies needed for wound repair, helping the patient and bringing down the cost of the treatment.
SironRX Therapeutics develops therapies under license from Juventas and The Cleveland Clinic. Its main product, clinically tested JVS-100, encodes Stromal cell-Derived Factor-1 (SDF-1), which is produced by the body in response to tissue injury. SDF-1 activates natural repair processes that prevent cell death and recruit stem cells to the damaged organ.
"In the process of developing the product for Juventas, we discovered the same product had an application in dermal healing . . . We spun that off into a different company in 2010," says Rahu Aras, CEO of Siron RX.
"There are a lot of companies out there, developing drugs based on extracting your cells and re-delivering them to damaged tissue. This process of isolating and re-delivering those cells is quite expensive and logistically challenging. What we're doing is delivering a drug to the organ that's damaged that gets your body to send its own stem cells so we no longer have to go through that extraction and re-delivery process," says Aras. FDA approval for the new treatment may not come for another four or five years.
SironRX will initiate a Phase II clinical trial this year to evaluate the efficacy and safety of JVS-100 in accelerating wound repair and preventing scarring. Clinical studies have shown that the drug is well tolerated and safe. The company is raising funds for a Phase II clinical trial in 2012.
The company has already raised $10.5 million in venture capital and grant funding, according to Aras. SironRX has only 1.5 FTEs and Juventas 5, but both companies together could soon employ as many as 15 to 20, Aras says.
Juventas Therapeutics was formed in 2007.
Source: Rahu Aras; CEO, SironRX
Writer: Patrick G. Mahoney