A new era in treatments of autoimmune diseases and clinical trials: Two spin-offs kicked by CHF 130.000 each
02.06.2015
Two great biotech startups, Polyneuron Pharmaceuticals from University of Basel and CellSpring from ETH Zurich, raised CHF 130.000 each by winning the third and last round of Venture Kick. Both spin-offs are starting a new era in treatments of autoimmune diseases and clinical trials.
 Ruben Herrendorff of Polyneuron Pharmaceuticals ©Tina Sturzenegger
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 Chris Millan of CellSpring ©Tina Sturzenegger
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When a person is affected by an infection, the body creates specialized immune cellsand antibodies that attack foreign infectious agents. In the case of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis or Crohn's disease, there is an abnormal response of the body’s immune system towards self-tissues. This involves an overproduction of pathogenic auto-antibodies causing inflammation and tissue destruction. Current immunosuppressive drugs unselectively suppress the immune system, frequently leading to serious therapy side effects that are an intolerable burden to many patients.
Urgent medical need for effective and safe therapies
The University of Basel spin-off Polyneuron Pharmaceuticals is developing a groundbreaking drug class for the treatment of autoimmune disorders. Their technology platform “Antibody-Catch®” enables the design of drugs that selectively inactivate disease-causing autoantibodies, while leaving the immune system intact. This pioneering therapeutic approach holds great potential for effective and safe treatments for antibody-mediated autoimmune diseases. “Polyneuron strives to make Antibody-Catch® a clinical reality and hopes to make a difference of people’s lives suffering from autoimmune diseases. With Venture Kick our startup can take an important step towards the realization of improved treatments for autoimmune diseases”, says CEO Dr. Ruben Herrendorff.
The next level in 3D cell culture
Bringing a new drug to market costs between 1-2 billion CHF and takes over a decade to complete. For the last half-century, pharma companies and academic labs have relied on 2-dimensional cell structures to test potential new medicines. That is changing rapidly now as researchers observe more and more that cells grown in 3D structures mimic human organs and tumors much more closely. The two founders of CellSpring, Dr. Chris Millan and Kramer Schmidt, have devised a faster, more cost-effective method for developing 3D cell structures than current products to test medication. The innovation enables more reliable and earlier ”stop/go” decision making in the drug development timeline. CellSpring’s vision is to reduce the number of drugs that fail during clinical testing and to reduce the number of animals needed for preclinical drug screening. But CTO Dr. Chris Millan knows that great innovation is not enough: “We are talking about bringing change to the highly standardized and regulated drug development process. Our 3D cell culture models will need to be rigorously validated before they are widely accepted in the industry. That’s our focus now and with the great support of Venture Kick we are up for the challenge!”
Polyneuron Pharmaceutical and CellSpring are members of the Swiss national startup team 2015, the venture leaders, and will travel to Boston and New York on June 9th for a 10 days entrepreneurial business development trip: Watch the presentation video of Ruben Herrendorff and Chris Millan here:
Presentation video of Chris Millan:
Presentation video of Ruben Herrendorff:
Urgent medical need for effective and safe therapies
The University of Basel spin-off Polyneuron Pharmaceuticals is developing a groundbreaking drug class for the treatment of autoimmune disorders. Their technology platform “Antibody-Catch®” enables the design of drugs that selectively inactivate disease-causing autoantibodies, while leaving the immune system intact. This pioneering therapeutic approach holds great potential for effective and safe treatments for antibody-mediated autoimmune diseases. “Polyneuron strives to make Antibody-Catch® a clinical reality and hopes to make a difference of people’s lives suffering from autoimmune diseases. With Venture Kick our startup can take an important step towards the realization of improved treatments for autoimmune diseases”, says CEO Dr. Ruben Herrendorff.
The next level in 3D cell culture
Bringing a new drug to market costs between 1-2 billion CHF and takes over a decade to complete. For the last half-century, pharma companies and academic labs have relied on 2-dimensional cell structures to test potential new medicines. That is changing rapidly now as researchers observe more and more that cells grown in 3D structures mimic human organs and tumors much more closely. The two founders of CellSpring, Dr. Chris Millan and Kramer Schmidt, have devised a faster, more cost-effective method for developing 3D cell structures than current products to test medication. The innovation enables more reliable and earlier ”stop/go” decision making in the drug development timeline. CellSpring’s vision is to reduce the number of drugs that fail during clinical testing and to reduce the number of animals needed for preclinical drug screening. But CTO Dr. Chris Millan knows that great innovation is not enough: “We are talking about bringing change to the highly standardized and regulated drug development process. Our 3D cell culture models will need to be rigorously validated before they are widely accepted in the industry. That’s our focus now and with the great support of Venture Kick we are up for the challenge!”
Polyneuron Pharmaceutical and CellSpring are members of the Swiss national startup team 2015, the venture leaders, and will travel to Boston and New York on June 9th for a 10 days entrepreneurial business development trip: Watch the presentation video of Ruben Herrendorff and Chris Millan here:
Presentation video of Chris Millan:
Presentation video of Ruben Herrendorff: