NEW YORK, NEW YORK – July 23, 2018 – Bridge Medicines announced today an agreement with Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) to develop a platform designed to deliver drugs specifically to the kidney. The first disease target will be acute kidney injury (AKI), a highly prevalent and currently unmet medical need.
This work originated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in the laboratories of radiochemist Michael R. McDevitt, PhD, ME, and David A. Scheinberg, MD, PhD, Chair of Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Molecular Pharmacology Program, Director of the Experimental Therapeutics Center, and a Scientific Advisory Board member for Bridge Medicines. Over the last decade, Drs. Scheinberg and McDevitt have pioneered the study of functionalized, single walled carbon nanotubes (fCNT) as platforms for the delivery of biological, radiological, and chemical payloads to target tissues. Their most recent work demonstrated the successful use of fCNT to deliver a small interfering RNA (siRNA) selectively to the proximal tubule of the kidney and be protective in an animal model of AKI.
“The goal of our platform is to create a carrier plus drug complex that is greater than the sum of its components,” stated Dr. McDevitt. “This technology selectively delivers siRNA cargo to the target kidney cell, with the potential to protect the kidney from injury.”
“Acute kidney injury is a highly prevalent, and highly problematic medical problem for which there have been very few promising advances,” said Dr. Scheinberg. “We have high hopes that this technology may offer a novel solution by offering a treatment or protection for patients who are at risk of developing kidney injury.”
“I’m delighted that Bridge Medicines has the opportunity to work together with Memorial Sloan Kettering on the AKI program: it is innovative and offers the potential to become a breakthrough therapy. Our team is thrilled to have an opportunity to begin what we hope will be a ground‐breaking effort to develop a novel and clinically‐important therapeutic drug product,” stated Dr. William Polvino, CEO of Bridge Medicines.
Formed in 2016, Bridge Medicines leverages financial and technical resources to enable further drug development work, including human clinical trials. Each project enters with a fully articulated development program prepared by Bridge Medicines and approved by the Bridge Medicines Scientific Advisory Board, the originating institution, and the primary investigator. Bridge Medicines financially and operationally supports the projects as they generate the data needed to prepare an Investigational New Drug application; programs that enter Bridge Medicines are expected to yield an IND‐ready drug candidate ready for subsequent clinical trials.
About Bridge Medicines
Bridge Medicines is a pioneering drug‐discovery company focused on advancing promising early technologies in major academic institutions from human proof‐of‐concept to clinical development. Launched by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, The Rockefeller University, Weill Cornell Medicine and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd., in partnership with Deerfield Management and Bay City Capital, Bridge Medicines is a groundbreaking initiative that provides an unbroken, fully funded and
professionally staffed path from discovery to drug candidate.
For more information, please visit www.bridgemedicines.com
Contacts
Deerfield Management Company
Karen Heidelberger, 212‐692‐7140
[email protected]
Bay City Capital, LLC
Carl S. Goldfischer, MD, 415‐835‐9385
[email protected]