HALLE (SAALE), Germany, May 7,
2021 /PRNewswire/ -- OntoChem GmbH, a German Life
Science IT company, announced today that it has assigned its drug
discovery technologies and assets, including its drug discovery
collaboration with Anixa Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: ANIX), a
biotechnology company focused on the treatment and prevention of
cancer and infectious diseases, to the newly formed MolGenie GmbH,
a biotech company focusing on drug discovery and
development.
Anixa and OntoChem were seeking to develop an orally
administrable, metabolically stable, non-toxic anti-viral therapy
against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. The
partners had recently completed in vitro antiviral
cell-based studies and in vivo POC studies in a Syrian
Hamster model of the Covid-19 disease. Anixa is now working
with MolGenie to use the generated compounds and data, together
with MolGenie's network of experts in drug development, to advance
the project to its next stage of development.
"We are glad that this project has resulted in the discovery of
novel compounds that are promising agents to treat Covid-19," said
Dr. Felix Berthelmann, COO of OntoChem. "With the need to
focus the project now on selecting compounds for a comprehensive
pre-clinical development program, we are convinced that MolGenie
will provide a more focused approach to advance this project
further towards an upcoming investigational new drug
application."
"We are excited to continue the development of this promising
anti-viral program," stated Dr. Lutz
Weber, CEO of MolGenie. "With the formation of
MolGenie, we can now focus our resources solely on drug discovery
and development and provide greater support for the advancement of
the Anixa Covid-19 collaboration."
Dr. Amit Kumar, President and CEO
of Anixa Biosciences, stated, "Based on the promising data of our
successful collaboration with OntoChem, we are proceeding to the
next stage of drug development. This phase includes synthesis
and biological testing to select suitable development candidates by
evaluating the toxicology, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic
properties of those compounds. MolGenie, with its proven network of
experts in drug discovery and development will provide the optimal
support for this development."
About OntoChem GmbH
OntoChem offers high performance
and highly customizable text analysis and data mining products that
can be tailored to meet the specific needs of every client.
OntoChem's information discovery tools are used by small and large
life and material science companies to find information by
automatically indexing and analyzing internal as well as external
data collections. This data provides the raw material for AI and
machine learning methods for predictive drug discovery or materials
design. We are very proud to work with some of the most influential
companies in the fields of pharma, chemistry, specialty chemistry,
material science, publishing and IT. Additional information is
available at www.ontochem.com.
About MolGenie GmbH
MolGenie is using and developing
compound design technologies aiming at drug-like and selective
small molecules that exhibit a clear structure-activity
relationship and have the promise of good tolerability and oral
bioavailability. MolGenie has been formed in 2021 to use its
network of experts in drug discovery and development to advance
interesting new therapeutic agents towards IND applications.
Additional information is available at www.molgenie.com.
About Anixa Biosciences, Inc.
Anixa is a
publicly-traded biotechnology company developing a number of
programs addressing cancer and infectious disease. Anixa's
therapeutics portfolio includes a cancer immunotherapy program
which uses a novel type of CAR-T, known as chimeric endocrine
receptor T-cell (CER-T) technology, and a Covid-19 therapeutics
program focused on inhibiting certain viral protein function.
The company's vaccine portfolio includes a vaccine to prevent
breast cancer, and specifically triple negative breast cancer
(TNBC), the most deadly form of the disease, and a vaccine to
prevent ovarian cancer. These vaccine technologies focus on
immunizing against specific proteins that have been found to be
expressed in certain forms of cancer. Anixa continually
examines emerging technologies in complementary fields for further
development and commercialization. Additional information is
available at www.anixa.com.
Forward-Looking Statements: Statements that
are not historical fact may be considered forward-looking
statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are not
statements of historical facts, but rather reflect Anixa's current
expectations concerning future events and results. We
generally use the words "believes," "expects," "intends," "plans,"
"anticipates," "likely," "will" and similar expressions to identify
forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements,
including those concerning our expectations, involve risks,
uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond our
control, which may cause our actual results, performance or
achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from
any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or
implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks,
uncertainties and factors include, but are not limited to, those
factors set forth in "Item 1A - Risk Factors" and other sections of
our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K as well as in our
Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K.
We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise, except as required by law. You
are cautioned not to unduly rely on such forward-looking statements
when evaluating the information presented in this press
release.
Contact:
Mike Catelani
mcatelani@anixa.com
+1-408-708-9808
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SOURCE Anixa Biosciences, Inc.