Firm acquires rights to spider-venom drug

Akashi Therapeutics Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, has acquired the rights to a drug that UB scientists have begun developing for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a common, fatal genetic disease affecting young boys.

The potential therapy is called AT-300. It is a modified form of a small protein UB researchers first discovered in the venom of the Chilean rose tarantula.

AT-300 promises to slow the muscle deterioration that characterizes muscular dystrophy. In patients with dystrophy, genetic mutations weaken the membrane of muscle cells, enabling large amounts of calcium to infiltrate the cells. This sets off a chain reaction that leads to muscle degeneration.

AT-300 has been shown, in laboratory studies, to stop the dangerous calcium influx by keeping pores called mechanosensitive ion channels shut when the muscle cells are stretched, says UB scientist Frederick Sachs, who led the research. The protein also holds promise for preventing cardiac failure, one of the most common causes of death in dystrophic boys, he adds.

Akashi Therapeutics will fund further development of AT-300. The company is licensing the rights to the protein from Tonus Therapeutics, a UB spinoff Sachs co-founded with colleagues and a Western New York stockbroker whose grandson has Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

About the deal

Akashi Therapeutics is sublicensing global intellectual property and commercialization rights for AT-300 from Tonus Therapeutics, which licenses the rights from UB.

Tonus and UB will receive royalties on sales of any resulting Duchenne muscular dystrophy treatments.

This agreement is an important opportunity because Akashi Therapeutics has the funding and resources to propel development of this new potential drug, says Robert J. Genco, vice provost who oversees UBs Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach (STOR).

Sachs, a professor of physiology and biophysics, will continue to help oversee research and development. His team including fellow Tonus co-founders Thomas Suchyna and Philip Gottlieb discovered the tarantula protein in the 1990s.

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Firm acquires rights to spider-venom drug