Pfizer Enters into Agreement with Acuitas Therapeutics for ...
As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded last spring, Thomas Madden figured it was time to hire a public relations firm.
For years the low-profile Vancouver biotechnology company he runs, Acuitas Therapeutics, had worked in an emerging field of therapies called “messenger RNA” (MRNA). Acuitas’ technology, a delivery system for MRNA drugs, would prove to be a critical piece of three COVID-19 vaccine projects, including one approved by the United Kingdom on Wednesday developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE.
“As a private company we’d elected to remain under the radar,” Dr. Madden, Acuitas’ founder and CEO, said in an interview. “When we were involved in the development of COVID-19 vaccines … we thought it was important to let people know that a Canadian company and Canadian technology was playing a critical role.”
With Canada’s biotechnology industry enjoying a record year for fundraising, perhaps the most successful company is Acuitas. But while AbCellera Biologics Inc., another Vancouver firm, prepares to go public on the strength of its own partnership on another COVID-19 treatment, Mr. Madden says Acuitas won’t follow suit. Acuitas has operated prosperously for years with no outside funding, and he has no interest in changing that.
“There are two reasons to go public – to raise capital to invest in products or expand the business, or the shareholders want to see liquidity for their shares,” said Dr. Madden. “Neither of those reasons apply to us. We don’t need that liquidity and we don’t need external capital.”
Privately held Aquitas does not share financial results. But Dr. Madden revealed revenues amount to “more than tens of millions of dollars” annually. They have increased by about 75 per cent for the past few years and should continue to grow by at least that amount for the next two.
Acuitas’ technology, known as lipid nanoparticle, or LNP, is best described as a cross between a delivery driver, a bodyguard and a stager for MRNA drugs, which encompass many of the coronavirus vaccines.
MRNA is a molecule that brings instructions to the body’s cells to make a protein found in the novel coronavirus, which prompts the immune system to create a response to fight it.
But MRNA is fragile. It can’t survive the trip into the cells on its own; it needs LNP’s help. Dr. Madden likened MRNA to “a delicate ornament you buy online.” LNP functions to “package the ornament so it is protected in the journey. It would find your house, open your front door, let itself in and then unwrap the package so the ornament was ready.”
Acuitas has a messy backstory. Dr. Madden, 66, who emigrated to Canada from the U.K. four decades ago to do post-doctoral biochemistry work with University of British Columbia professor Pieter Cullis (now Acuitas chairman), cofounded a biotech startup called Inex Pharmaceuticals. But he was downsized after the company merged with another firm in the late 2000s to become Tekmira.
He and other ex-employees founded AlCana Technologies Ltd, the forerunner to Acuitas, in 2009. After a lawsuit between AlCana and Tekmira, his company secured the right to produce drug delivery technology licensed from their ex-employer as part of a settlement.
Acuitas worked with Moderna, another future COVID-19 vaccine developer through the 2010s until Tekmira, now called Arbutus Biopharma Corp., terminated Acuitas’ license. After another lawsuit, the parties settled in 2018. Acuitas and Moderna parted ways but Dr. Madden’s company had by then developed intellectual property to provide its own brand of LNP.
Dr. Madden said Acuitas’ business goes well beyond the pandemic; the profitable company has signed at least 10 deals with drug developers who license its technology in a range of therapeutic areas.
But he said the high profile use of LNP during the pandemic “provides clinical proofs of concept that the technology is extremely powerful and can be used to rapidly develop new vaccines.”
Dion Madsen, a partner with biotechnology venture capital firm Amplitude Venture Capital, said “we believe that RNA therapeutics and nanomedicines are an exciting approach that is really coming of age. We are looking a number of investments in the space.”
He said Canada has several companies with strengths in manufacturing and delivery, such as Acuitas and Precision Nanosystems, that could make them important to the maturity of this sector.
Didier Leconte, vice-president of investments, life sciences and funds of funds with Fonds de solidarité FTQ, one of Canada’s top biotech investors, said the world has discovered that companies in the forefront of vaccine developments against COVID-19 “kind of rely on Canadian company that has a unique expertise and know-how that helps with the formulation of mRNA vaccines.”
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-inside-acuitas-therapeutics-the-vancouver-company-providing-a-crucial/
Acuitas Group Holdings, LLC, an entity beneficially owned and controlled by Terren Peizer.
- Fonds de solidarité FTQ Applauds Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau's Commitment to Reinstate the Labour Fund Tax Credit. Montréal, February 27, 2015 – Speaking ...
Terren Scott Peizer, is an investor and company executive. He is the CEO of Acuitas Group Holdings and Neurmedix.[1] He is also the CEO and chairman of Ontrak.[2] He has held senior executive positions within technology and biotech companies, at Goldman Sachs and First Boston,[1] and as a bond salesman at Drexel Burnham Lambert.[3][4]
Peizer's hometown is Beachwood, Ohio.[5] He attended Beachwood High School.[6] Peizer graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.[1]
Career
In 1983, Peizer worked at Goldman Sachs[1] and later worked at First Boston as a salesman. Michael Milken hired Peizer as a bond salesman at Drexel Burnham Lambert in 1985.[7] He was the manager of David M. Solomon's account with Drexel[5] and given a 3.5 million dollar salary and a $500.000 loan to invest in the partnership.[8] Peizer worked directly under (and at the same desk as) Milken and admired him, sometimes pretending to be him on the phone, and calling him "Dad".[9] When investigations into Milken's illegal activities started, Peizer agreed to provide material evidence to prosecutors in exchange for immunity.[10]
In 1989 Peizer purchased the Omaha Racers, a minor league basketball team.[11] In 1991 he bought UTI Chemicals Inc. through his company Financial Group Holdings Inc.[12] and stepped down as its chairman in 1994.[13]
In 1993 he was elected Chairman at CMS Enhancements after acquiring a 36.8% share of the company.[14] From 1997 to 1999, Peizer was president of Hollis-Eden, a pharmaceutical company.[15][16] In 1999 Peizer raised money for Tera Computer Company, a manufacturer of supercomputers, which allowed them to later buy out Cray Research and became its chairman and a director.[17] He stepped back down as chairman in 2000 because the company was concerned that he would not obtain a security clearance from the United States Department of Defense by the end of 2000 to transfer Cray's classified business from Silicon Graphics, causing Cray Research to pay a penalty fee to Silicon Graphics.[18]
Peizer founded Hythiam Inc., a pharmaceutical company, in 2004.[19] The firm bought the rights to Juan Jose Legarda's addiction treatment pharmaceuticals.[20] 60 Minutes and The Dallas Morning News criticized Peizer after the company bypassed clinical studies and government approval when bringing Prometa to market.[21][22]
In 2018, Peizer became CEO and director of BioVie, a pharmaceutical company.[23]
Gabasync is an ineffective treatment promoted for methamphetamine addiction, although it had also been claimed to be effective for dependence on alcohol or cocaine.[1] It was marketed as PROMETA. The treatment, based loosely on the research of Spanish psychologist Juan Jose Legarda, involved a combination of three medications (gabapentin, flumazenil and hydroxyzine) as well as therapy. While the individual drugs had been approved by the FDA, their off-label use for addiction treatment has not.[2] Gabasync was marketed by Hythiam, Inc. which is owned by Terren Peizer, a former junk bond trader.[3] Hythiam has sought to patent the protocol and charges up to $15,000 per patient to license its use (of which half goes to the prescribing physician, and half to Hythiam).[4] Lower rates are offered to the criminal justice system, where it has been used in several drug court pilot programs.[5]
In November 2011, the results of a double-blind, placebo-controlled study (financed by Hythiam and carried out at UCLA) were published in the peer-reviewed journal Addiction. It concluded that Gabasync is ineffective: "The PROMETA protocol, consisting of flumazenil, gabapentin and hydroxyzine, appears to be no more effective than placebo in reducing methamphetamine use, retaining patients in treatment or reducing methamphetamine craving."[6]
Solomon performs regularly as a disc jockey under the stage name "David Solomon"[9] producing a variety of electronic dance music (EDM).[45][46] He has performed at nightclubs and music festivals around New York, Miami, and the Bahamas.[10] Solomon maintains the Instagram account "@davidsolomonmusic" to catalogue his exploits as a music producer.[2] In June 2018, he released a cover of the Fleetwood Mac song, "Don't Stop".[47] The song was originally played on Sirius XM's BPM: Electronic Dance Music Hits the previous January.[48] "Don't Stop" was listed in Spotify's 263,361-follower playlist "Happy Summer Beats".[49] His Spotify profile has 550,000 monthly listeners with his debut single garnering 8 million listens.[50] Shortly after his debut release Solomon opened a SoundCloud account where he posts extended musical sets and concert performances.[51] His most recent release, "Someone Like You" peaked at #4 on the Billboard Dance Club Chart in November 2020.
、、、（爆ｗｗｗｗｗｗｗｗｗｗｗｗｗｗｗ
3 件のコメント:
厚生労働省が自治体に2月7日通達。
広域火葬計画。災害・疫病の際協力し、火葬が破綻しないようにする。
火葬要員の確保、派遣要請及び受け入れのためでしょうか。
Twitterで具体的ではないけど
カナダ企業の独占技術だとか暴露されてたな
Acuitas Therapeutics…
投資やってると業界事情ダダ漏れなんDEATHね
中毒治療薬ww
映画でも隔離してのた打ち回って天照かの如く岩戸から出てきましたリボーンしました
のシーンを学習せよ ですかね
しくじればループだししくじるように出来てるしで
世間一般でいうところの儲け話と一緒で本当に儲かるなら人に教えないってﾔﾂですかね、
コメントを投稿