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Fitzsimons Innovation Community and Aimco Host Media Event Focused on Sharing Momentum, Trends, and Patient-Impact Storylines
With Aimco, Fitzsimons Innovation Community hosted members of the local and national media to learn firsthand about breakthrough work from 10 of the 80+ visionary biotech and life sciences companies in the Fitzsimons Innovation Community ecosystem who are defining the future of health and care with innovative scientific discoveries and research to cure diseases, save lives, and improve patient care.
The Benson Hotel and Faculty Club hosted this exclusive opportunity for media to engage with executives from these companies.
MEDIA PITCH DAY IN ACTION
Event Date: September 27, 2023
Meet the Companies
These companies presented their most recent work to members of the media in a fast-paced pitch environment.
ClinImmune + RheumaGen
Revolutionizing the Field of Autoimmunity; Cures and Remissions to Free Patients from Enormous Burden
Using technology developed by ClinImmune Cell & Gene Therapy (housed at Fitzsimons Innovation Community), RheumaGen is developing therapies with the potential to cure rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other major autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS), juvenile diabetes (T1D), ankylosing spondylitis, and celiac disease. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the most common autoimmune diseases and affects around 1% of the world population. RheumaGen received excellent initial feedback from the FDA and plans to begin its first clinical trial in RA in early 2025. This health innovation is very personal to two of the co-founders – Brian Hart and Ryan Hart. Their mother has suffered from RA for over 25 years and the entire team is determined to finally be able to help Mrs. Hart.
clinimmune.com │ rheumagen.com
Colorado Prevention Center (CPC) Clinical Research
Transforming Clinical Trials
Founded in 1989, CPC Clinical Research is an academic research organization that is recognized for its expertise in comprehensive clinical trial design and management for both national and international clinical research. CPC has over 30 years of experience in managing Phase I to IV clinical trials, providing services to over 150 clinical studies.
EnteroTrack
Empowering Patients and Clinicians to Take Control of Chronic Conditions
EnteroTrack is a Colorado-born startup that produces the world’s only non-invasive string test for Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE) and other upper GI diseases. Patients with EoE face a lifetime of frequent testing to monitor and control this increasingly prevalent yet uncurable disease. EnteroTrack’s products empower patients and clinicians to take control of chronic conditions like EoE or screen early for deadly disease such as Esophageal Adenocarcinoma and pancreatic cancer.
enterotrack.com
GATES INSTITUTE: Gates Biomanufacturing Facility (GBF)
Bridging the “Valley of Death” to Advance Cell and Regenerative Medicine Research
The Gates Biomanufacturing Facility is an FDA Current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) facility providing early-stage phase 1 trial support for drug development. The GBF is one of the few (GMP) facilities located on a major academic research and clinical campus in the Rocky Mountain region with the capacity to manufacture both protein- and cell-based therapies, developing processes for over 10 new investigational drugs. The GBF strives to be an effective partner for early-process transfer to Phase I compatible processes. The GBF expects to begin producing CAR T cells for a fourth trial at CU Anschutz and file an FDA investigational new drug application in 2024.
GelSana
Making a Material Impact on Advancing Wound Care
GelSana is bringing an entirely new class of materials to the wound care field to truly make a significant advancement on wound care for improving patient outcomes and quality of life. GelSana engineers highly elastic wound dressing hydrogels which can stretch and conform across any wound, reduce inflammation through their polymer chemistry, prevent infection, and provide sustained drug delivery over time; all towards providing much needed innovative solutions for wound healing, including chronic wounds and burns. GelSana’s first commercial wound dressing hydrogel, Cleragel™, will be clinically launched in the coming year.
HepQuant
Personalizing Chronic Liver Disease Management
HepQuant develops non-invasive, quantitative tests that measure liver health. The HepQuant DuO Test is a Laboratory Developed Test (LDT) that enables healthcare providers to manage patients with liver diseases more effectively. It delivers information about liver cell function and portal-systemic shunting, attributes of liver disease that are associated with clinical outcomes. Results may be used by a physician in conjunction with clinical evaluation and other tests to aid in the decision to proceed with or defer invasive procedures, to monitor treatment response, or to predict disease progression and adverse outcomes, such as ascites, encephalopathy, and variceal bleeding. HepQuant has commercialized its tests to pharmaceutical companies and has completed 35 clinical trials. The company plans to launch the HepQuant DuO Test to hepatologists in 4Q2023.
OncoVerity
Personalizing Chronic Liver Disease Management
HepQuant develops non-invasive, quantitative tests that measure liver health. The HepQuant DuO Test is a Laboratory Developed Test (LDT) that enables healthcare providers to manage patients with liver diseases more effectively. It delivers information about liver cell function and portal-systemic shunting, attributes of liver disease that are associated with clinical outcomes. Results may be used by a physician in conjunction with clinical evaluation and other tests to aid in the decision to proceed with or defer invasive procedures, to monitor treatment response, or to predict disease progression and adverse outcomes, such as ascites, encephalopathy, and variceal bleeding. HepQuant has commercialized its tests to pharmaceutical companies and has completed 35 clinical trials. The company plans to launch the HepQuant DuO Test to hepatologists in 4Q2023.
RefinedScience
Refining Science with Precision Medicine
RefinedScience is a precision medicine company arising from the Innovation Centers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Campus and UCHealth. It is devoted to identifying novel cellular targets as well as promising and safe new agents against treatment resistant cancers and other diseases. It accomplishes this by mining big data sets comprised of disease specific single cell omics data curated with accurate and deep clinical annotation on patient features including outcomes and treatment toxicities. The first example of this novel approach has been in the disease acute myeloid leukemia (AML) which represents an area of high unmet need as only a minority of patients with AML are cured and many live only a year or less. Findings from RefinedScience have led to the identification of multiple promising treatment targets on a growing range of leukemia stem cells, which in turn have led to a rapidly expanding IP portfolio, several pharma partnerships and the development of a new pharma company called OncoVerity. RefinedScience is devoted to overcoming other critical medical challenges like AML and is now expanding its unique team, infrastructure, and discovery engine to other disease areas with high unmet medical need.
STAQ Pharma
Bolstering Supply Chain to Address Critical Drug Shortages
STAQ Pharma is a trusted 503B Outsourcing Facility that makes compounded medications for hospitals, surgery centers and physician-led practices. STAQ Pharma is widely known for its work in addressing critical drug shortages in the United States. For example, they supply Desmopressin Nasal Spray for people with Hemophilia A or Type 1 von Willebrand disease. The company is also producing Albuterol for children’s hospitals, and in 2022 helped protect patients (primarily pediatric) from a shortage of Potassium Chloride (KCl) and 23.4% Sodium Chloride.
Vona Oncology
Marketing First-In-Class Small Molecule Drug for Aggressive Cancers
Vona Oncology is an early clinical stage bio-pharmaceutical company developing targeted therapeutics to treat aggressive cancers such as triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), ovarian cancer, and melanoma. Vona Oncology has an innovative, novel small molecule that is very efficacious at low doses with little toxicity observed in pre-clinical studies.
For full details, please visit FitzsimonsInnovation.com.