Vegenics has been set up to develop and commercialize the intellectual property and technology of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer (LICR) and Licentia relating to molecules known as vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGF).
Vascular endothelial growth factors are a family of proteins that play an important role in promoting the growth of new blood vessels and maintenance of existing blood vessels. The approach of inhibiting VEGF and thus restricting blood and nutrient supply to tumors has potential in the treatment of cancer.
Circadian will make an initial equity injection of A$4 million into Vegenics, which will be 50% owned by Circadian and 50% by LICR and Licentia. Vegenics will initially focus on developing peptide and antibody antagonists to two forms of VEGF (VEGF-C and VEGF-D) as anti-tumor agents.
“The Circadian model, which is now represented in the Vegenics collaboration, is one that has great appeal to research discovery organizations such as ours who need vehicles to translate basic and important discoveries into products that benefit cancer patients,” commented Mr Edward McDermott Jr., president of LICR.