Market Opportunities
Obesity
- Obesity prevalence has nearly tripled since 1975
and today is pandemic
- Affecting one third of the world population
- Responsible for more than 10% of US health care costs
- In 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults were overweight; of these over 650 million were obese
- The Economic burden of obesity is large:
- Current medical treatments:
- have poor benefit-to-risk profiles with unpleasant side effects
- fail to achieve long-term therapeutic results
- do not meet patients’ expectations
- often are not covered by health insurance plans
- The US Weight Loss and Diet Control market was worth $66 Billion in 2017
- A safe and effective (>10% weight loss) drug should garner up to $20 Billion in annual revenues
NAFLD
- Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) affects 25% of the global adult population with a range from 13.5% in Africa to 31.8% in the Middle East.
- Lifetime costs of all NASH patients in the United States in 2017 will be $222.6 billion, and the cost of the advanced NASH population will be $95.4 billion.
- NAFLD prevalence can be inferred from the prevalence of obesity and diabetes
- Prevalence of liver steatosis is 76% in obese patients
- There is currently no approved drug for NAFLD/NASH
- The NASH market is expected to reach $21 billion globally, by 2025 (www.alliedmarketresearch.com)
Investment Highlights
- Target Fat Accumulation and related Metabolic Diseases with high unmet medical needs: The Obesity and Diabetes (Diabesity) and Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) pandemics
- Focus on Oligonucleotide Therapeutics (ONTs) microRNA analogs which increase lipid oxidation, insulin sensitivity, mitochondrial activity and energy expenditure
- Convenient self-local administration of drug to increase compliance
Target Product Profile
- Convenient regimen (monthly local
administrations by subject: self-injection under the abdomen skin). Transdermal
patches or microneedles are also tested
- Better patient compliance and persistence with therapy
- Expected weight loss > 10% meeting patient expectations
- Improvement of T2DM, NAFLD/NASH and circulating cholesterol
- No requirement for lifestyle changes
- No expected cardiovascular and intestinal adverse events
- Unaltered brain functions
- No expected drug interactions
- Better quality of life
Financing
- AptamiR successfully completed three rounds of Angels Financing and a Series A, raising a total of $7,000,000.
- AptamiR is now seeking to raise tranches of a $15-20M Series B financing while concurrently evaluating geographic licensing opportunities and strategic partnerships.
- Upcoming AptamiR Milestones
Activities during the next 3 years:
Pre- Clinical Activities:
- Selection of second generation of Oligonucleotide
Therapeutic (ONTs) Molecules targeting miRNA-22 and miRNA-515 in primary cultures
of human adipocytes
- Efficacy studies in mouse models of DIO, T2DM and NAFLD/NASH
- Acute and chronic toxicology studies in mice and monkeys
Regulatory Activities:
- Submission of pre-IND and IND dossiers
Clinical Activities:
- Phase 1 Clinical studies of antagomirs and agomirs in cohorts of patients with obesity, diabesity and/or NAFLD
Opportunities/Contact
Please contact us regarding interest in business development, licensing and collaboration opportunities: