庆祝这个德国传染病生物技术的10周年庆与CEO

StephenW

Celebrating the 10th Birthday of this German Infectious Disease Biotech with the CEO
15/02/2016
GermanyInfectious Disease Interviews
zimmerman_aicuris_labiotech_s

AiCuris is a Biotech company based on the Bayer Life Sciences park in Wuppertal (Germany). It is working on new anti-infective drugs and is former spin-off of Germany’s biggest Pharma Company. It’s celebrating its 10th birthday this year, which is good reason to interview the CEO…

AiCuris_antiviral_germany_interview So AiCuris is working on anti-infective drugs for viral infection. It has 3 different programs at the moment, including a Phase III preventative against the Human cytomegalovirus. AiCuris partnered on this specific program with Merck in a €442.5M deal, Germany’s largest of 2013 (!).

The company is also backed by the Strüngmann brothers (Andreas and Thomas), two German billionaires who sold their Pharma company and now invest in several Biotech companies. This gives AiCuris enough financing to move forward with their 50 employees.

Holger Zimmerman is the CEO and former CSO of the company. He previously worked at Bayer and decided to spin-out AiCuris with 21 of his colleagues. Infectious disease seemed to have been forgotten over the last ten years but are coming back on the front of the scene.

aicuris_interview_heptitis_b_hmcv_vaccine_trials
It’s pretty rare to have a European Biotech with a Phase III. How is it going?

I cannot disclose too much as we are in a partnership with Merck & Co. (MSD) on its development, but it’s fair to say that’s its going forward well. Interestingly, our main competitor drug Brincidofovir (by the US Chimerix) failed in December during its phase III SUPPRESS trial after it didn’t reach primary endpoint.

It’s obviously a bad news for patients, but good news for AiCuris…Even more so because this drug doesn’t use the same mechanism of action as our molecule.

Letermovir (AIC246/MK-8228) is an oral, once-daily antiviral candidate for prevention and treatment of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection. It is a first in class molecule derived from a novel chemical class and is designed to inhibit the HCMV viral terminase.

aicuris_anti-infective_cures_interview_pipeline

The phase III candidate (Letermovir) targets HCMV, a ubiquitous herpes virus which is generally dormant and asymptomatic.

However, it frequently develops a clinically significant disease in immuno-compromised patients, and has also recently been implicated in a number of population-wide chronic conditions including atherosclerosis, type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel diseases, lupus and even cancer.
You also just announced good pre-clinical results for Hepatitis B?

Yes, we just announced positive pre-clinical data of AIC649, a proprietary inactivated parapox virus (iPPVO). It induces a natural, self-limiting immune response, enhancing appropriate immune responses against unrelated viruses.
aicuris_hepatitis_b_aic649

AIC649 is being developed as first-line therapy in combination with standard of care for patients chronically infected with the HBV. (Source: AiCuris)

As a novel biological immune modulator, the candidate has been conceived as curative treatment for HBV and has responded well in the Woodchuck test (a model for Hep B infection). This gives us the possibility to start Phase I to get safety data.

The goal is to get a functional cure, probably by combining this drug with such an immune-modulator as AIC649. Today, a vaccine is actually already in existence, but it’s hard to get the vaccination out in the developing world due to the need of several booster vaccinations.
You just came back from JP Morgan, how was it?

It was very busy, as always. We were at this meeting not for the usual reason of finding investors, but to find partners for our programs. We focused on our resistance-breaking antibiotics (AIC499) as well as on our anti-HBV agent PPVO (AIC649), and another the immune modulator against autoimmune diseases (AIC284), as autoimmune diseases are not the focus of the Company’s development strategy.

We had some very interesting discussions to find a strategic partner.

Our last pre-clinical data with Pritelivir (AIC649) even interested some key actors and we could be interested in partnering early on, especially if we could combine our drug with an existing one.
hilton_san_francisco_biotech_jp_morgan_conference

The Hilton Hotel is one such prime location for the Biotech Industry Following surrounding the J.P. Morgan Conference around Union Square (Credit: Hilton Hotels)
Will you do an extra party for this 10th birthday?

Of course. We had a party every year, and this year should be special. It’s great to see we have been growing over one decade and I hope we will continue to grow for the next 10 years.

AiCuris has interesting assets as well as extensive experience in the field to solve high-unmet medical needs, and will continue to do so for a long time yet…

StephenW

庆祝这个德国传染病生物技术的10周年庆与CEO
15/02/2016
GermanyInfectious疾病访谈
zimmerman_aicuris_labiotech_s

AiCuris是基于拜耳生命科学园伍珀塔尔（德国）的生物技术公司。它正在开发新的抗感染药物，是德国最大的制药公司前分拆。它是今年庆祝其10岁生日，这是很好的理由去采访的CEO ...

AiCuris_antiviral_germany_interview所以AiCuris正在抗感染药物的病毒感染。它拥有目前3种不同的方案，包括对人巨细胞病毒第三阶段的预防。 AiCuris这个具体方案与默克公司在€442.5M协议，德国最大的合作，2013（！）。

该公司还通过Strüngmann兄弟（安德烈亚斯和托马斯），两个德国亿万富翁谁卖给他们的制药公司，目前投资于一些生物技术公司的支持。这给AiCuris足够的资金来继续前进与他们的50名员工。

霍尔格齐默尔曼是CEO和公司的前CSO。之前，他曾在拜耳，决定分拆出来与他的同事21 AiCuris。传染病似乎已被遗忘在过去十年但回来在现场的前面。

aicuris_interview_heptitis_​​b_hmcv_vaccine_trials
这是非常罕见的有一个欧洲生物技术与第三阶段。最近好吗？

我不能透露太多，因为我们在其发展默克公司（MSD）的合作，但它是公平地说，它的未来良好。有趣的是，我们的主要竞争对手药物Brincidofovir（美国Chimerix）的III期试验SUPPRESS期间十二月失败后，没有达到主要终点。

这显然​​为AiCuris为患者一个坏消息，但好消息......更是因为这种药物没有使用相同的作用机制，我们的分子。

Letermovir（AIC246 / MK-8228）是用于预防和治疗人类巨细胞病毒（HCMV）感染的口服，每日一次抗病毒药候选。它是在从一个新的化学类的派生类分子的第一和被设计为抑制巨细胞病毒的病毒terminase。

aicuris_anti-infective_cures_interview_pipeline

第三阶段的候选人（Letermovir）针对HCMV，一个无处不在的疱疹病毒是潜伏通常和无症状。

但是，它常常发展在免疫受损的患者具有临床显著疾病，并且最近也在一些种群范围的慢性病症，包括动脉粥样硬化，1型糖尿病，炎性肠病，狼疮，甚至癌症牵连。
您也刚刚宣布了乙肝良好的临床前研究的结果？

是的，我们刚刚宣布AIC649，专有灭活parapox病毒（iPPVO）阳性的临床前数据。它诱导一个自然的，自我限制性的免疫应答，增强针对不相关的病毒的适当的免疫应答。
aicuris_hepatitis_​​b_aic649

AIC649正在开发中的护理标准长期感染乙肝病毒的患者相结合的一线治疗。 （来源：AiCuris）

作为一种新型的生物免疫调节剂，候选一直认为是根治性治疗乙肝，并已在土拨鼠测试（用于乙肝感染模型）反应良好。这让我们开始第一阶段获得安全数据的可能性。

的目标是获得的官能固化，可能是由这种药物具有这种免疫调节剂如AIC649组合。今天，疫苗实际上是已经存在，但要获得接种了在发展中世界，很难由于需要若干加强接种。
您刚刚从摩根大通回来，又是怎么回事？

这是非常繁忙的，一如既往。我们在本次会议没有寻找投资者的通常的原因，而是要找到我们的计划的合作伙伴。我们专注于我们的抵抗破抗生素（AIC499），以及对我们的抗HBV剂PPVO（AIC649），另一个针对自身免疫性疾病（AIC284）的免疫调节剂，如自身免疫性疾病并非本公司的发展战略的重点。

我们有一些非常有趣的讨论，以寻找战略合作伙伴。

与Pritelivir（AIC649）我们最后的临床前数据，即使有兴趣的一些关键角色，我们可能有意合作的早期，特别是如果我们可以将药物与现有的结合。
hilton_san_francisco_biotech_jp_morgan_conference

希尔顿酒店是生物技术产业继各地联合广场摩根大通会议围绕这样一个黄金地段（来源：希尔顿酒店）
你会为这个10岁生日做一个额外的聚会吗？

当然。我们每年有一个聚会，而今年应该是特别的。我们很高兴地看到，我们一直在增长超过十年，我希望我们将继续成长为下一个10年。

AiCuris拥有有趣的资产，以及在该领域，解决高医疗需求的丰富经验，并会继续很长一段时间这样做还...