Origins and technology of REGiMMUNEFintan Walton:
Hello and welcome to PharmaTelevision News Review here at the Japan Biotech Forum at The Royal Society in London. On this show I have Haru Morita, who is the CEO and President of a company called REGiMMUNE which is based in Tokyo, welcome to the show.
Haru Morita:
Thank you very much.
Fintan Walton:
REGiMMUNE, is a biotech company an emerging company within Japan, your company is very specialized in the area of reverse vaccination as I understand it, could you tell me a little bit about the origin of the company and the technology that's associated with that company?
Haru Morita:
Okay, the company was established in 2006 along the IP developed at RIKEN. RIKEN is Japanese leading research institute, and the technology developed at RIKEN is their target specific immunosuppressant technology and we name it as reVax.
Mechanism of reverse vaccinationFintan Walton:
Could you tell me little bit about what reverse vaccination means? What's the actual underlying mechanism?
Haru Morita:
So the reverse vaccination is to reduce immunosuppressant immune reaction target specific, so like existing immunosuppressant which wipe out T-cell and released to our the pound immunosuppressant we can do a target specifically, because our immune system is the barrier of our body so it need to be kept maintained.
Fintan Walton:
So in another words you can target specific parts of the immune system so they are suppressed, but the rest of it is healthy and the patient is therefore healthy?
Haru Morita:
So it's just like the normal vaccination which activating the immune reaction towards the target, we do that the other way around.
Fintan Walton:
Reverse to that?
Molecules and programs in preclinical stage and specific targetsFintan Walton:
Okay, so that's now you've got a number of molecules in preclinical stage could you tell us what those molecules are and their specific targets?
Haru Morita:
Yes, the first molecule is for a Graft-versus-host disease and we have filed IND in United States that is to reduce immune reaction associated with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and that can treat that patient to receive the chemotherapy and radiation therapy and receive the donor stem cell transplantation.
Fintan Walton:
Okay, so that's the first one and that's still in preclinical?
Haru Morita:
Yes, but it's entering into clinic.
Fintan Walton:
It is entering into clinic?
Fintan Walton:
And when do you plan to take it into clinic?
Haru Morita:
Later this year.
Fintan Walton:
Okay, and are you doing that on your own or you going to do that in association with another company?
Haru Morita:
We are, the problem is it's funded by Japanese Government and so we can that grant can take us to the clinic. [
PharmaDeals ID = 31819]
Fintan Walton:
So the other two molecules the two other programs that you have could you tell us about those two?
Haru Morita:
The one program is for Cedar Allergy, then cedar pollinosis is a very, very problematic in Japan may be you are now familiar with the Cedar Allergy, but just like our grass pollinosis or other Allergy it causes a lot of the symptoms.
Fintan Walton:
And at the moment is that still an unmet clinical need for that in Japan?
Haru Morita:
Yes, currently we have of course we have around the symptom controlling drug like antihistamine, but in Europe I believe there this instantiation therapy for grass pollinosis that is to inject the antigen from very lower dose toward the high dose, but the problem of that therapy is it takes time, it takes it requires a lot of shot more than 30 shots for a course and even you reached at the top dose you never know if it works for it or not.
Fintan Walton:
So your approach would be a one shot?
Haru Morita:
Yes, one or just two or three shot.
Fintan Walton:
Okay, and so that's your second program, the third program is?
Haru Morita:
Third program is one for our Type I diabetes. So Type I diabetes is caused by the autoantigen against insulin, so and then insulin is damaged by the autoantigen. So the patient need to receive a lifelong injection of insulin, but our drug can induce our turns against the insulin which result in the no auto-antibody against the insulin.
Funding and partnership strategiesFintan Walton:
Your company REGiMMUNE is you've mentioned that at least one program is got backed by government funding from grants, from government sources is that true for all your research? Where do you get your funds from?
Haru Morita:
We have we are funded by our Japanese Venture Capital and so far we have raised our US$15 million from our first deal of Japanese Venture Capitals.
Fintan Walton:
So you are pretty well backed?
Haru Morita:
Yes, so far so good.
Fintan Walton:
It's so far so good. So obviously like all biotechnology companies at some point you want to partner with a larger pharmaceutical company, when do you plan to do that?
Haru Morita:
For the first program the one for Graft-versus-host disease that we are looking for a partner and likely that target is to the target obviously is pharmaceutical company after Phase I clinical trial. And of course in Allergy it's also funded by Japanese Government grant, so the fund can take us to the end of a preclinical study.
Fintan Walton:
In today's climate and when you look at your company and Japan and the Japanese funding of biotechnology companies are you optimistic about how your company is going to do in the next four or five-years?
Haru Morita:
Yes, the situation is of course pretty bad, yes but in the mean time there are only limited number of a surviving company, so that give us the opportunity to get more attention from venture capital and also pharmaceutical company.
Fintan Walton:
So in someways it's a good thing, if you are a strong company it's good.
Fintan Walton:
Haru Morita, thank you very much indeed for coming on the show.
Haru Morita:
Thank you very much.