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NewCo News Satori Names New CEO, Hauls in $22M for Alzheimer's Candidates
BioWorld Today
Jennifer Boggs
15 January 2009
Alzheimer's disease is "really the toughest nut to crack" in the neuroscience field, said Jeffrey Ives, the recently named CEO of Satori Pharmaceuticals Inc., a 2005 start-up aimed at developing disease-modifying therapies for neurodegenerative disorders, starting with Alzheimer's.
A former Pfizer Inc. executive, Ives first began working with Satori co-founders — industry veteran and chemist Mark Findeis and Daphne Zohar, of PureTech Ventures, along with a team of neurodegenerative disease experts — on a consulting basis, as the fledgling firm worked to raise its first major round of venture funding. With the recent completion of a $22 million Series A round, Ives took the helm and is looking forward to advancing Satori's first program to the clinic.
In the 1990s, researchers first began targeting neurotoxic pathways in an attempt to block the progression of Alzheimer's, and the amyloid pathway emerged as one of the most promising targets for treating the disease, though some candidates have stumbled in clinical studies to date. Laval, Quebec-based Neurochem Inc.'s Alzhemed and Salt Lake City-based Myriad Genetics Inc.'s Flurizan both tanked in Phase III studies, while Phase II data were mixed for bapineuzumab, a monoclonal antibody in development by Dublin, Ireland-based Elan Corp. plc and Madison, N.J.-based Wyeth. (See Bioworld Today, Aug. 28, 2007, July 31, 2008, and Aug. 21, 2008.)
But Satori — named for a Japanese word that means "understanding" and "enlightenment" — hopes to have better success by attacking neurotoxicity earlier in the amyloid pathway.
It's been well established that the formation of amyloid plaques is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, and many drugs in development are designed to remove that plaque. But that "is a little too far downstream from where the neurotoxicity takes place," Ives told BioWorld Today. So Satori's goal is to target the pathway "before the deposits start to precipitate. That's where you want to intervene [and] stop the production."
Ideally, the goal is to create an oral, small-molecule drug that can be dosed once daily, without drug interaction so it can be taken on a chronic basis. That's particularly important, Ives said, since most Alzheimer's patients are elderly and likely will be taking medications to manage other conditions, such as arthritis.
Also, if the drug proves safe as a chronic treatment it even could offer potential as an early treatment for patients at high risk for developing Alzheimer's. "We'd have a safe drug to go ahead and start patients on that could interfere very early" in amyloid plaque production," Ives said, adding, "That's really the endgame, the holy grail of drug therapy."
Its program targeting upstream amyloid plaque production is one of three that the Cambridge, Mass-based firm has advanced into preclinical development. At least one of those is expected to start clinical testing in 2010.
Funds from the Series A round should take the company to that goal, Ives said.
California-based venture firms InterWest Partners, Prospect Venture Partners and New Enterprise Associates Inc. co-led the round, with participation from existing investors, including Boston-based PureTech. Prior to the Series A, the company had sustained operations with about $3 million in seed financing.
Chris Ehrlich, at InterWest, along with Ed Mathers, of NEA, and Ilan Zipkin, of Prospect Venture, joined Satori's board. Ives also was named to the board, which already included Zohar, Thomas Salzmann and Bennett Shapiro.
Satori's scientific advisory board includes founding SAB member Dennis Selkoe, along with Salzmann, Donald Price, Chris Eckman, Jonathan King, Jon Clardy and Marlene Cohen.
