Mass
High Tech: Woburn
Marine Tech Firm Links with Maine Co., Seeks Growth Funding
11/14/2005
07:45 AM
By Dyke Hendrickson
A
Woburn company, Aphios Corp., recently signed a collaboration
agreement with a coastal Maine enterprise in a federally
funded initiative to develop anti-cancer compounds from
marine materials.
Aphios
will partner with Coastside BioResources of Stonington.
Aphios
is developing anti-viral and antimicrobial therapeutics
from its library of 1,400 marine micro-organisms, according
to officials.
"The
marine environment represents a relatively unexplored resource
for the discovery of new anti-infectives," said Trevor
Castor, chief executive of Aphios.
Aphios, which employs 12, has raised close to $20 million
in federal grants. It is now seeking to raise $5 million
to $10 million from private investors to further development
of its therapeutics.
Coastside
BioResources employs three. Its key revenue stream comes
from selling "nutraceuticals," or health-food
supplements, that company CEO Peter Collin said are derived
from sea cucumbers.
Coastside
BioResources is also doing cancer research through support
of federal and state institutions. After receiving a grant
from the National Cancer Institute, it sought out Aphios
as a partner.
"Trevor
Castor is well-known in the field," said Collin, who
has also received grants from the Maine Technology Institute.
"We feel that we can work together to develop meaningful
research in the field of anti-cancer compounds."
Aphios
has been busy on other fronts as well. Las week it signed
a licensing agreement with Boston University Medical School
to codevelop research for prostate cancer. And it signed
a collaborative agreement with the Bio Research Corp. of
Yokohama, Japan, to develop an oral anti-cancer treatment.
Aphios
is developing enhanced therapeutics including small molecules
from medicinal plants and marine organisms, and improved
drug delivery formulations of protein macromolecules and
hydrophobic anti-cancer drugs.
Aphios
officials say the company has six lead therapeutic products
being developed: an anti-depressant, a benign prostatic
hyperplasia product and four oncology products - LoTax,
a generic version of the popular anti-cancer drug Taxol;
two improved drug delivery formulations of paclitaxel; and
Zindol, and enhaced ginger product, in a Phase 2/3 clinical
trial for nausea in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
Castor,
considered an authority on "natural therapeutics,"
is a graduate of the Univeristy of California, Berkeley,
with a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and a master's of
science degree in chemical engineering. He is the primary
author of Aphios' 29 U.S. and international patents. It
has 15 applications pending.
He
has been a consultant to corprorations including Baxter
Healthcare, Bayer AG, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, and
Novartis AG.
