Amakem receives €1.28M government funding for COPD drug

The biotech start-up Amakem NV has been awarded €1.28 million by the Flemish government agency for Innovation by Science and Technology (IWT) to support its Rho kinase (ROCK) inhibitor-based drug development programme for the treating the lung disease chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Amakem was founded early this year by Dirk Leysen and Olivier Defert, who are both former researchers at the agricultural biotechnology firm DevGen.

Amakem’s CEO Jack Elands said, “COPD is a serious disease for which no cure exists. So-called kinase inhibitors hold great promise, but many have failed in clinical trials because of their limited therapeutic window. To address this fundamental problem we developed our ‘Localised Drug Action’ platform.” This makes kinase inhibitors safer by limiting or avoiding systemic exposure, thereby reducing side effects caused in non-target organs.

“This government grant enables Amakem to advance its COPD program more rapidly, but it also acknowledges the quality of our COPD program,” Elands said. “Our kinase inhibitors have the potential to really deal with inflammation in COPD and thereby become a breakthrough therapy to stop disease progression.”