Monday 20 May 2013

AbbVie's Latest Drug Deal Marks A Shift In The Celiac Disease Therapeutics Field



Bioassociate's latest Seeking Alpha article is on AbbVie's latest therapeutic venture. Below is a re-run of the article, and the original can be found here

Compared to its relative prevalence, Celiac disease is the most common disease that has zero treatments on the market. To make matters worse, only four companies are developing drugs for treatment of Celiac, and until a few days ago, this entire field has been flying under the radar.

This changed on May 15, when AbbVie (ABBV) announced it will pay $70 million to secure rights to an early-stage therapy for celiac disease developed by Alvine Pharmaceuticals. Under the terms of the agreement, AbbVie holds an exclusive option to either acquire the drug (named ALV003) or equity in Alvine upon successful completion of a Phase 2b study that will be conducted by the latter. Should AbbVie exercise its option, Alvine would receive additional undisclosed payments.

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder that affects the small intestine of people with a genetic predisposition. The autoimmune reaction is triggered by gluten proteins (gliadins) that are found in common grains, such as wheat, barley, and rye. If untreated, Celiac-related inflammation can result in severe damage of the digestive tract tissue and can lead to anemia, infertility, osteoporosis, neurological dysfunction, and cancer.

Today, treatment means only one thing - a life-long gluten-free diet. However, the 6 million celiac patients in the U.S. and Europe are having a hard time maintaining a 100% gluten-free diet, as accidental gluten cross-contamination cannot be completely avoided. This results in a significant unmet need for non-dietary therapies to treat Celiac, and consequently, a big and untapped market - according to a GlobalDatareport, Celiac disease therapeutics in the seven major markets would generate revenues of more than $650 million by 2019.

Alvine's AVL003 contains two recombinant enzymes that break down gluten in the intestines. Following a six-week phase IIa study, Alvine reported that AVL003 reduced the gliadin-related intestinal inflammation among Celiac patients that consumed gluten. AbbVie's deal makes it the first big pharma player to join the Celiac therapeutics field, and according to the sum it is willing to risk on a drug that completed a single efficacy clinical study, it looks like it means business.

Besides Alvine, three other companies are developing celiac disease therapies. Alba Therapeutics, with a drug that inhibits the gut's permeability to gluten, and ImmusanT, which develops a vaccine for induction of gluten tolerance, are both private companies. The third company is BioLine Rx (BLRX), whose Celiac targeting drug, BL-7010, is expected to commence clinical development later this year.

BL-7010 is a non-absorbable, high molecular weight polymer that binds gliadins in the gastrointestinal tract and neutralizes their harmful effect in Celiac patients. In-vivo data for this drug includes high specificity to gliadins, prevention of pathological damage and reduction of intestinal inflammation, with no toxic effects. According to BLRX, results from a pilot clinical study with BL-7010 are expected mid-2014. Considering the current low price of BioLine's stock, the very short clinical trials with Celiac drugs and the very few competitors in the Celiac therapeutics field, BL-7010 could very well be BioLine's joker card.

As of now, the research and development of Celiac therapeutics is being performed solely by small biotechs. AbbVie's recent deal, that included a considerable upfront payment for a drug that completed only one clinical efficacy study, implies that big partnering opportunities are available for the other few companies in the race for a Celiac drug.

Monday 13 May 2013

Israel's Reign in the Golden Age of Neuroscience: Introduction

Bioassociate has been working hard on interviewing Israel's most prominent neuroscientists and leaders of exciting young neurotech companies. Our latest report, titled "Israel's Reign in the Golden Age of Neuroscience" was written in conjunction with President Shimon Peres's Israel Brain Technologies initiative, which aims to make Israel a leading global neurotech hub. 

Below is an introduction to Bioassociate's latest white paper, which will be ready shortly. If you would like to receive a free copy of the report, make sure to subscribe to our mailing list on the Bioassociate homepage - www.Bioassociate.com



The blind can see, the deaf can hear, and the paralyzed can walk—without a doubt, the Golden Age of Neuroscience is upon us. And if that weren’t enough, mind control, telepathy and in fact elaborate real-life Avatar scenarios are so nigh that scores of the neurotech-savvy have begun to pre-order their titanium thought defense helmets. So awesome have the leaps of neurotechnology been in recent years that the media has struggled to deliver this industry a deserved timely coverage, and public awareness has just barely caught up with humanity’s neuro-prowess of late. 


It is no surprise that we pondered so much of our vast universe before tapping into the microcosmic mystery of the mind: the human brain is riddled with millions of neuronal connections, all intertwined in a jungle so dense that the intricacy of galaxies and nebulas could pale in comparison. Having understood the basic principles which guide brain formation, scientists’ success in elucidating grey matter’s modus operandi has witnessed exponential growth in recent years, and one could safely say that our ability to harness this knowledge is at its most fruitful level yet. Neuroscientists have proudly treated depression, Parkinson’s disease, a range of psychological disorders, blindness, paralysis, and have even been able to communicate with long-comatose patients. Hardly any achievement of the last century could contest to be as jaw-dropping as giving a man thought to be in a decade-long vegetative state the ability to tell his parents he can hear them. 

Israel, a country which boasts the highest R&D per capita spend in the world, is one of only a handful of players actively pursuing a neurotech vision today. Most impressively, the countries or continents with which it shares this vision are at least ten times larger than it, both in size and budget. Thus, in celebration of the unraveling Neuro-Renaissance, and particularly as tribute to Israel’s increased involvement in the ever-expanding neuro-cosm, we present the current global neurotech situation, leading worldwide initiatives to raise awareness and to aid this ever-growing industry, followed by a summary of Israel’s very own academic and commercial neuro-arena. Place your titanium helmet orders!


Make sure to visit and subscribe on www.bioassociate.com to get a free copy

Thursday 2 May 2013

The (understandable) Confusion in Brain Mapping Terminology

The blind can see, the deaf can hear, and the paralyzed can walk—without a doubt, the Golden Age of Neuroscience is upon us. And if that weren’t enough, mind control, telepathy and in fact elaborate real-life Avatar scenarios are so nigh that scores of the neurotech-savvy have begun to pre-order their titanium thought defense helmets. So awesome have the leaps of neurotechnology been in recent years that the media has struggled to deliver this industry a deserved timely coverage, and public awareness has just barely caught up with humanity’s neuro-prowess of late. And what came about was the usual by-product of a much-too-quickly advancing technology: terminology fails

(view original image here)

On April 2, 2013 President Barack Obama unveiled the BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) initiative, whose final and uttermost objective is to visualize, map, understand and reconstruct the activity of every single neuron in the brain. This knowledge will in the future be applied to the development of new technologies and the treatment of quickly expanding array of neurological disorders.

BRAIN’s near-sighted primary goal will be to sponsor ongoing brain mapping projects, such as the Human Connectome Project, which the initiative claims will help us visualize every neuron in the brain and understand the formation of synapnses (connections) between neurons in live brain tissues. As the Human Connectome Project deals primarily with brain scans of live humans and their brains, this happens to be a feat which, for the time being, any knowledgeable neuroscientists will tell you is utter nonsense.

Here is why. 

The Human Connectome Project (HCP) has been dubbed one of the greatest neuroscience ambitions of the new millennium, much akin to the Human Genome Project a decade ago. The project showcases efforts to fathom the complex macrocosm which unites every axon bundle in the brain with the use of high-resolution fMRI or other non-invasive techniques, and symbolizes the positive level of trust which neuroscientists now assign to neurotechnology. HCP precedes and perhaps supersedes the BRAIN initiative, as already in 2010 it secured grants collectively worth over $40 million from the NIH. Initial 1200 Connectome subjects will be scanned for hours using an fMRI scanner 4 to 8 times as powerful as a standard one, utilizing the power of one nuclear submarine per scan, in hopes to yield insight into the connectivity of nerves within a brain, and how this connectivity varies throughout species and in disease. 

With novel neuro-terminology threatening to become its own language, much confusion and mis-representation surrounds HCP, and naturally the media hype it triggered has seemingly gotten lost in translation –or, rather, in literary terms. In bold truth, the techniques which the HCP is set to exploit are entirely non-invasive brain scans whose resolution is equivalent to that of a rusty security camera. Although general brain regions of humans will be clearly visible, local inter-region synapses, which form 80% of connections in the cerebral cortex, are entirely inaccessible to supracranial scans, as even a light microscope of the highest magnification is insufficient to visualize a single neuron. 

In other words, an fMRI scanner does not, and probably never will, visualize single cells and local synapses in the brain. However, HCP may yield great insights into the "connective visuality" of the brain, as vibrant HCP images (such as the one below) show thousands of connections between particular brain regions via axonal bundles (which are cables composed of many nerve cells, a bit like your landline telephone wire, not single brain cells). Scientists say that it is this inter-region connectivity which is responsible for our superior intelligence to other species, as preliminary scans clearly show a much more "connected" human brain in comparison with that of a chimpanzee, for instance. Scientists also believe that comparing such deep brain scan images between healthy and ailed individuals can help us understand neurological disease in the future.



Does this imply that we shall never be able to dwell into the microscopic ecosystem of grey matter? Not at all, although it may take some time until we are able to do so in humans. Non-human species, however can now be studied with a dozen of other, much more invasive techniques you probably wouldn't want performed on yourself. These techniques' findings collectively contribute to the general brain Connectome (note the unnecessary similarity to the Human Connectome Project) across all species-which is, in essence, a brain equivalent of the genome. To make matters more ponderous, Connectomics is the study of the connectome with all the research techniques available today, comprising MRI, electron microscopy, fluorescent cell staining, rendering brains see-through and a fantastical endeavor which goes by the name of optogenetics

One rather straight-forward technique used to visualize individual neurons and synapses in the cortical column is, literally, brain carving. A team of researchers at Harvard, led by prominent brain explorer Dr. Lichtman, have been working towards creating the most efficient contraption for slicing off pastrami-thin slices of mouse brain and observing them under a powerful electron microscope. Theoretically, this process may yield a complete 3D cellular reconstruction of a brain, but it would require creating and aligning thousands, if not millions, of brain slices. 

Amongst other, less brute-force neuronal visualization technique is the Clarity Project, which helps visualize neurons in brains of live mice. The Clarity project revolves around scientists' ability to chemically produce completely transparent brains (or other organs) in mice--a technique which was recently developed by Prof Karl Deisseroth and his team at Stanford. The chemical treatment strips away lipids which normally block the passage of light using the detergent SDS.


(original image here)

To help them through the treacherous cranial terrain scientists at Dr Lichtman's Dr Diesseroth's labs utilize fluorescent staining of neurons, which helps isolate single cells spanning a number of brain areas. The staining produces images such as this, termed BrainBows

(original here)

But perhaps the most compelling technique developed at Deisseroth's lab is optogenetics - a research tool which revolves around a gene discovered in 2002, encoding light-gated ion channels, or Channelrhodopsins, found in unicellular green algae. Upon activation with a specific-frequency light, the channels open, causing an ion influx into the cell much akin to the mechanism which causes our neurons to fire. Using a different light frequency can also activate a different set of channels—the Halorhodopsins which will cause a negative ion influx into the cell and thus inhibition of the neuron. For algae, this mechanism’s function is to orient the cells towards or away from light. But this mechanism can also be applied to mammalian cells.
(original image here)

In recent years scientists succeeded in engineering rhodopsins from algae into nerve cells of mice, either grown externally or, in fact, in perfectly alive animals. In essence, genes encoding these channels can be “injected” into very specific areas of the brain, which will render those areas light-sensitive. By shining a light with the use of optic cables into those areas, scientists can trigger very specific neurons, and examine the animal’s behavior, thereby demonstrating the role of the specific neurons they are studying.


Click here for a video of an optogenetically-challenged mouse commanded by scientists to go in perpetual circles. 
(original image here)

Ultimately, all the techniques which have armed neuroscience in recent years work towards one ambitious goal: to comptuationally simulate the workings of a brain, which would give us the ability to re-create, and perform "virtual healing", on neurological ailments. A breakthrough milestone was achieved in this sphere of connectomics in 2012: scientists were able to unveil key principles which guide the formation of neuronal interceptions, and applied these principles to a computational structural prediction model. In this way they were able to demonstrate that brain neurons grow independently of each other, and form connections once they intercept each other’s paths in the brain. 

Some might argue that virtually recreating a self-sufficient human brain capable of conscious thought like you and I might not be a great idea, but that's for later debates (we are not there yet).

Bioassociate will soon publish an in-depth report on the Global Neuroscience Revolution, where many recent fascinating developments, techniques and initiatives will be described. If you wish to receive a copy of the report please subscribe to our mailing list on our home page: www.bioassociate.com