Drug leads displaying promise

Therapeutic drug potency and stability are set to improve thanks to a new grant from the Queensland State Government.

New biotech company Kalthera, spun out from The University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) is developing new drugs primarily for inflammation, cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Kalthera’s director, Professor David Craik said the new drugs would combine the potency, and specificity of a peptide or protein, with the stability against stomach enzymes and the oral administration of most small molecule drugs.

“Using naturally occurring peptides or proteins as drugs has been widely recognised as an exciting area of drug development, because they have a high affinity to receptors in the body,” Professor Craik said.

“Unfortunately the advantages are significantly offset by disadvantages relating to their chemical structure, including susceptibility to degradation by stomach enzymes, and their poor potential for oral administration.

“Kalthera has developed a method of overcoming these shortfalls using naturally occurring circular proteins as a delivery framework for stabilised peptides.

“Our technology offers the exciting prospect of harnessing, for the first time, the sensitivity, affinity and low dose requirements of proteins as drugs.

“Affording natural proteins and peptides the ability to resist proteases and stomach acids by providing reliable delivery for tailored and selective drugs, would be of enormous value to both the pharmaceutical industry, and the health industry as a whole,” he said.

The State Government’s Innovation Start Up Scheme (ISUS) grant enables the strategic development of Kalthera into a sustainable business.

IMBcom, the commercialisation company for UQ’s IMB, has provided extensive business support assisting Kalthera from the bench to business.

In welcoming the Queensland State Government’s funding CEO of IMBcom, Dr Peter Isdale said Kalthera’s work was an exciting prospect for the biotechnology industry in Brisbane.

“Yet again the Queensland government has identified and shown faith in a Queensland company with the potential to make a significant impact on the global pharmaceutical market.”

Media: For more information contact IMBcom’s Michael Finney (telephone 07 3346 2185).