American biotech companies begin work in Russia

American nanobase in Khimki

Galina Kostina, Expert No. 8-2012

In February, two American biotech companies Bind Biosciences and Selecta Biosciences announced the opening of their offices in Russia, based on HimRara. Actually, these are not exactly American companies anymore, since at the end of last year they signed an investment agreement with Rusnano, which receives stakes in Bind RUS and Selecta RUS (9.89 and 12%) for its $ 50 million. The companies are paired, if only because both were created by scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard Medical School — Robert Langer and Omid Farokhzad. The co-founder of Selecta is also Ulrich von Andrian from Harvard Medical School. Not only the names of famous US institutions speak for themselves, but also the name of Robert Langer, the author of many innovations, who has a lot of prestigious prizes, a nominee for the Nobel Prize. Langer has already created several successful biotech companies under several of his innovations. Bind Biosciences and Selecta Biosciences are developing two main technologies: Bind is developing a new class of highly selective targeted therapeutic agents, Selecta is a new class of nanoparticle—based vaccines. Cooperation with a major Russian investor and the involvement of Russian specialists, according to the founders, will allow the two companies to develop at an accelerated pace.

Platforms are going to RussiaA couple of years ago, these two small firms did not even think about Russia.

However, about Europe and Asia too. They, like other small American biotechs, went the usual way, developing at the expense of home venture capital funds. True, after the crisis, the total investments of venture capitalists in biotech have significantly decreased, but not from the star Bob Langer. "Investors always keep an eye on famous personalities like Bob. And as soon as he comes up with something, a queue of people who want to invest money immediately lines up for him," says Robert Rosen, CEO of Bind RUS and Selecta RUS.

Langer heads one of the largest scientific laboratories, which is engaged in multidisciplinary research and development. He is the author of approximately 850 patents and patent applications. The range of his interests is very wide. Langer recently surprised the world with the first implantable chip that gradually releases drugs at the right time in the right amount — an alternative to constant injections. A few years ago, he managed to grow muscles with blood vessels on a matrix using stem cells. However, his main hobby is targeted drug delivery using synthetic nanoparticles, and Bind and Selecta are engaged in variations.

The beauty of the products developed by the two companies is that they have so-called basic platforms. On their basis, you can make quite large lines of various drugs. Bind Biosciences develops therapeutic agents of targeted action, and nanoparticles act as a platform, the upgrade of which is carried out depending on the disease. Specific ligands are attached to the base nanoparticles, which will recognize proteins or receptors on the surface of diseased cells and bind to them. This is how the exact hit and the maximum concentration of particles in the affected area are achieved. The nanoparticle carries an already known drug, it needs to be delivered to the target without losing it halfway and without spraying it on healthy tissues. The nanoparticle can move towards the goal calmly, without fear that it will be detected and destroyed by the immune system: it has a special protective polymer layer. Polymers also control the rate of release of the active substance. All polymers are safe, biodegradable and biocompatible.

Currently, one of the drugs of the new Bind-014 line is already in the first phase of clinical trials. It has ligands binding it to specific tumor cell receptors. The well-known chemotherapy drug docetaxel is enclosed in the nanoparticle as an active substance. Tests show that Bind-014 significantly increases the concentration of the drug in the tumor area without affecting healthy tissues. The concentration of the drug makes it more effective and increases tolerance. According to the developers, this agent shows good results in the treatment of so-called solid (solid) tumors, such as breast, lung and prostate cancer.

Nanoparticles can be carriers of various drugs. They can be loaded with low molecular weight compounds, peptides, proteins, short RNAs capable of performing a wide range of actions. In particular, nanoparticles that will fight inflammatory and cardiovascular diseases are at the stage of preclinical trials.

Selecta also has a basic technology on the basis of which it is possible to make various vaccines, both preventive and therapeutic. One group of drugs is synthetic vaccine nanoparticles designed in the likeness of natural viruses. They have antigens on their surface, such, for example, as in the influenza virus. According to these antigens, the immune system recognizes them and begins to produce the corresponding antibodies. In addition, the vaccine particle carries an adjuvant — a substance that enhances the immune response of the body. The particles are constructed in such a way that they release vaccines in lymphoid tissues, and this reduces side effects.

The second group of Selecta drugs is synthetic vaccine particles capable, on the contrary, of suppressing immune reactions directed at the body's own cells, for example, with allergies.

Currently, the company is developing drugs that will find use in diseases such as human papillomavirus, influenza, malaria, oncological diseases, allergies, type I diabetes. It is noteworthy that the flu vaccine will be universal, unlike the currently existing ones being developed for specific types of seasonal viruses. According to experts, such a vaccine will have strong competitive advantages in a market estimated at $ 5 billion.

One of the company's most advanced products is a vaccine for the treatment of nicotine addiction. It causes the formation of antibodies in the body that bind nicotine. Since this bundle is too large to squeeze into the brain, where the "naked" nicotine gets when smoking, causing pleasure and addiction, it will not give either pleasure or addiction. According to experts, the smoking cessation market is also significant — about $ 4 billion. At the same time, many products are ineffective.

Now work on the basis of both platforms has become available to Russian specialists.

With a vengeanceAbout two years ago, a Russian delegation representing such development institutions as Rusnano and Skolkovo arrived in Boston.

Rusnano was interested in everything new that concerned nano, and someone advised to pay attention to two interesting companies associated with nano and the biotech star Langer. President and CEO of Selecta Werner Cotriles, who had contacts with Russia when he headed a fairly large pharmaceutical company Solvay Pharmaceutical, as well as the Belgian-Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce for Relations with Russia and Belarus, in turn showed reciprocal interest. According to him, Rusnano and Skolkovo may well develop an infrastructure similar to that in Boston, where universities, laboratories, small and large companies, venture investors, clinics, etc. are closely intertwined. In addition, Rusnano was the only major investor in the world working specifically in the field of nanotechnology. When possible cooperation was discussed, the founders of Bind and Selecta made a non—standard decision - to include a large Russian investor in the person of Rusnano among the usual American venture capitalists. This will allow companies to develop much faster than originally planned: after all, four laboratories, using basic media, will be able to develop more new products than two.

However, a decent contribution of Rusnano in the amount of $ 50 million is not the only driver for the creation of two biotech units in Russia. "The companies were also attracted by the unique atmosphere that is beginning to take shape in Russia due to the powerful policy in the field of innovation and development of the pharmaceutical industry," Robert Rosen continues. "This can contribute to the growth of the emerging market, which is already showing impressive rates." But if this factor is crucial for large pharmaceutical manufacturing companies and encourages them to build production facilities in Russia, for small innovative companies, production is not the main element of activity. For them, everything before production is more important: research and testing. "Knowing that Russia retains a good scientific potential, in particular, in such fields as chemistry, physics, computer science," Rosen says, "companies considered it possible to create laboratories here that, along with American ones, will be engaged in research and development."

The investment agreement with Rusnano was signed at the end of October last year. Rusnano invests $25 million in each of the companies, which, in turn, attract another $22.25 million from existing American and new investors. The total volume of investments should amount to 94.5 million dollars. Anatoly Chubais, Chairman of the Management Board of Rusnano, expressed satisfaction with the cooperation with outstanding companies in the field of nanomedicine, noting that both firms, which came out of MIT and Harvard laboratories, have a huge potential for developing new medicines.

Two Russian laboratories, which are due to open this spring, will almost mirror the American ones. Now Robert Rosen is busy recruiting staff: "We need to select about 20 people for each company, three or five of them are key, whom we will immediately send to Boston for training. And then the Russian and American laboratories will work in the closest cooperation." According to Rosen, Russian specialists will become not just performers, but scientists offering their own creative approach to each new product. "I do not rule out that in the future these companies will have new developments based on the ideas of Russian scientists," he believes. According to him, a full development cycle up to production should be established here in four years. "But since," Rosen emphasizes, "we have such products that only need a samovar per country, the production part does not bother us much. Moreover, it will come to production no earlier than in two or three years."

It is possible that laboratories and production will work in the Severny biopharmaceutical cluster in Dolgoprudny near Moscow on the basis of MIPT. Rosen believes that in such a cluster, the situation will be similar to Boston, where the interaction of various structures is established — from education to laboratories and production. "We are really doing one of the projects with new technologies that meet both Russia's innovation policy and the Pharma 2020 strategy. Technology transfer, integration into world science, new personnel, new drugs — our experience will be like a catalyst for the creation of new biotech companies in Russia. And American companies are already looking here after Bind and Selecta," Robert Rosen sums up. — I think Russian biotech will grow at the expense of small companies, which are still so few in the country. And this will be a powerful factor in the development of the entire pharmaceutical industry."

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28.02.2012