TiGenix announces spin out of its targeted drug discovery activities

Spin out

Cartilage replacement specialist TiGenix NV has entered an agreement with its academic partners, KU Leuven and Ghent University, the Dutch company Therosteon and a consortium of investors for the formation of a new small molecule drug development company, Arcarios.

Arcarios will focus on the discovery and development of disease-modifying drugs that target bone and joint diseases. TiGenix has a significant equity stake in the new company and retains the rights to drug candidates developed by Arcarios for local treatment of arthritic diseases.

TiGenix has developed a high-content screening platform, ChondroBOOST, which uses human joint chondrocytes and stem cells to assess the effect of small molecules and biologicals on the different aspects of cartilage biology.

Based on this platform and in collaboration with its academic partners KU Leuven (the Laboratory of Rheumatology and CD3, the Centre for Drug Design and Discovery) and the Ghent University, TiGenix has identified and validated a set of potential osteoarthritis targets and drug candidates.

The progression of these therapeutic programs requires the application of complementary technologies and skills that fall outside TiGenix’ focus and expertise, such as medicinal chemistry, rational drug design and small molecule development.

With the spin out of these activities into a new company, TiGenix will build on its small molecule drug discovery assets without deviating from its focus on cell therapy.

KU Leuven will contribute complementary know-how and intellectual property rights relating to a number of possible drug targets, as well as new potential small molecule drugs and drug discovery expertise.

Ghent will contribute know-how and intellectual property rights relating to a class of preclinically validated compounds that have demonstrated cartilage anabolic activities in the joint. These assets will be merged with the Dutch drug discovery company Therosteon, which has developed a similar high-content screening platform, OsteoBLAST, for the identification of compounds that have an effect on bone metabolism.

Therosteon’s lead compound, follistatin, is in advanced preclinical development. This means Arcarios will start with a broad and balanced, preclinical stage pipeline of products with disease modifying activity targeting joint and bone diseases.

The company will set-up R&D facilities in Diepenbeek, Belgium and is funded by a consortium of early-stage life science investors. The seed financing round was led by BioGeneration Ventures. Other investors include Erasmus Biomedical Fund, Gemma Frisius Fund, CD3, Baekeland Fund II, Credit Agricole and VINNOF.