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COMPANY BACKGROUND
Aminex Therapeutics, Inc. was founded Dr. Mark R. Burns, previously the Executive Director of Chemistry at MediQuest Therapeutics, Inc. By leveraging 12 years of research and development that resulted in a suite of intellectual property in the form of 6 issued U.S. patents, Aminex expects to shorten the timeframe for product development. The initial discovery, optimization and animal proof-of-concept stages have all been accomplished.
Results summarized in our recent publications demonstrated that PBT treatment resulted in the majority of large aggressive cancers to exhibit complete or nearly complete remissions.1 Furthermore, upon stopping treatment, the majority of treated tumors did not re-grow; demonstrating that PBT provides a unique mechanism of action for prevention of reoccurrences. Testing in oral tumors that developed spontaneously in house cats demonstrated PBT's effect against a cancer in its natural setting.2
The company has been awarded a RAID grant from the National Cancer Institute in addition to a QTDP award that will help defray the costs of pre-clinical development efforts (the value of this work is estimated to be $800,000). Furthermore, a strategic partnership with MBF Therapeutics, Inc. (Philadelphia) developing PBT for veterinarian applications has been formed. Overall, the Company is well positioned to advance its novel approach for the benefit of cancer patients.
COMPANY LEADERSHIP
Mark R. Burns, Ph.D., President & CEO
Dr. Burns is the scientific founder of the company. He has had twelve years experience in the small company environment of a biotechnology firm. His leadership of a creative scientific group enabled him to advance four projects from inception through to advanced preclinical status. Through these twelve years at MediQuest Therapeutics, he learned to hone his entrepreneurial, management and scientific skills and was promoted from Senior Scientist to Director then Executive Director of Chemistry. His mastery of polyamine chemistry and biology is demonstrated by his obtaining 15 issued US Patents and publishing 21 scientific papers in a variety of journals. Dr. Burns has made important contributions to the scientific fields of medicinal, combinatorial, enzyme inhibitor design, analytical and process chemistry. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan under Prof. James K. Coward and continued on at Rice University for post-doctoral training in bioorganic chemistry with Prof. Ronald J. Parry.
Casey C. Ellis, Chief Business Officer
Casey brings 30 years of experience in the financial industry having started as an entrepreneur in the early 80’s by starting his own firm. He has raised millions of dollars for multiple companies in energy industry over the last 15 years. Teaming up with Dr. Burns at Aminex in February, 2010, his contacts and insights have given the company a great base to expand into 2011 and beyond. Casey Ellis graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. and obtained a M.F. degree from Oregon State.
COMPANY MEDICAL AND SCIENTIFIC ADVISORS
Ronald J. Berenson, M.D., Medical Advisor.
Dr. Berenson is a board-certified medical oncologist with 20 years experience as a biotechnology company founder and executive. He has started and raised over $500M in financing for three Seattle-based biotech companies (CellPro, Xcyte Therapies and HemaQuest Pharmaceuticals). He has extensive experience developing therapeutic oncology products based on immunological platforms. In his leadership roles in his former companies, he has written multiple IND submissions and has interacted with the FDA at all levels of development. He is author on 86 scientific publications and is inventor on 10 US patents. Dr. Berenson received his medical training at Yale University (MD) and studied medical oncology at Stanford University.
Michael G. Palfreyman, Ph.D., D.Sc., MRPharmS. Scientific Advisor.
Michael G. Palfreyman is currently Head, Translational R&D at ChemDiv, Inc. and is responsible for the integration of drug development and clinical studies. In addition he is responsible for R&D Diligence at Torrey Pines Investment. Since 2009, Michael has been Executive Program Director and Senior Scientific Advisor to EnVivo Pharmaceuticals. Previously, Michael was VP, Program Management & Product Development at EnVivo Pharmaceuticals where he was responsible for the late stage discovery and preclinical development of two CNS drugs now demonstrating efficacy in clinical testing. Michael is a seasoned leader in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries with over 35-year experience. He was SVP of Research & Development at Scriptgen (Anadys) Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company specializing in genomic-based drug discovery in infectious diseases, and before that, Michael held a number of executive positions at Marion Merrell Dow Research Institute (Sanofi-Aventis), including Head of CNS Research, Director of Pharmacological Sciences, Co-Chair Pipeline Evaluation Team, Vice President Global Biological and Scientific Affairs, Vice President Research, North America and Member of the Research & Development Executive Management Team. His own research included discovery and development of a number of psychotherapeutic compounds for treatment of psychosis, depression, stroke, epilepsy, emesis, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s diseases. Many of these compounds have entered clinical development and a number have reached the marketplace. Michael received his B.Pharm, MRPharmS, Ph.D. and D.Sc. from the University of Nottingham in pharmacy, neuroscience and rational drug design of CNS active drugs, respectively. He has been an invited speaker and chairperson for a number of international and national conferences, is co-inventor on 35 issued US patents, 3 pending patents and co-author of over 150 scientific articles and book chapters.
1. Burns, M.R.; Graminski; G.F.; Weeks, R.S.; O’Brien T.G. Lipophilic lysine-spermine conjugates are potent polyamine transport inhibitors for use in combination with the polyamine biosynthesis inhibitor DFMO. J. Med. Chem. 2009, 52 (7), 1983-1993.
2. Skorupski, K.A.; O'Brien, T.G.; Guerrero, T.; Rodriguez, C.O.; Burns, M.R. Phase I/II clinical trial of 2-Difluoro-methylornithine (DFMO) and a novel polyamine transport inhibitor for feline oral squamous cell carcinoma. Vet. Comp. Oncol. 2011, 9, published online March 8, 2011.
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AMINEX THERAPEUTICS, INC.