Therapeutic for CO Poisoning.

About

Value Proposition We provide the first-ever antidotal therapy for carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. CO poisoning is an illness caused by exposure to too much carbon monoxide a colourless, odourless, and tasteless gas. CO poisoning can lead to heart damage, permanent brain damage and even death. There are currently few treatment options with most of the therapies causing a significant portion of the patients to have long term neurological defects. Reducing the number of patients hospitalized and decreasing the amount of neurologic side effects of this condition are a pivotal, unmet clinical need. Our novel antidotal therapy will provide a portable alternative that may have significantly better outcomes over current standards of care. Market Opportunity CO poisoning is responsible for up to 40,000 ER visits and nearly 6000 deaths per year, making it one of the leading causes of poisoning death in the United States. The societal costs of CO poisoning are upwards of $6 billion per year. In comparison, antidotal therapies, such as CroFab™ (BTG Pharmaceuticals) used in the treatment of 5000-7000 snake bites/year in the US, need to be stocked and immediately available before use in the ER, resulting in sales of >$100 million per year. With 40,000 patients a year, our novel antidotal therapy could follow a similar model and achieve a potential market penetration of up to 5 times this size. Competitive Landscape The current treatments for CO poisoning include the use of high flow oxygen or hyperbaric oxygen therapy. While inexpensive, it is cumbersome and logistically challenging, as it cannot be used in the field and it only accelerates the rate of carbon monoxide eliminates by a few fold. Less than 200 medical centres in the US provide hyperbaric chamber therapy, the standard of care. For critically ill patients it can be impossible. Even with the best of therapy, 20% of patients have long term neurologic deficits and 1% will die. Our novel portable antidotal agent therapy will rapidly clear carbon monoxide within five minutes of effusion significantly improving time to reversal of CO poisoning. Technology Recombinant neuroglobin will be an infusible biologic agent that can be given either on site by first responders or on initial presentation to the Emergency Room. Neuroglobin is a naturally occurring human globin protein that we have modified to adjust its CO binding properties. When infused, it will immediately act as a sink for carbon monoxide, rescuing red blood cells from poisoning, enabling them to rebind and deliver oxygen. We have demonstrated proof of concept in small mammal studies and have preliminary toxicology data.