Araim partners with Vault Bioventures to support development of ARA 290 and other peptides

This new strategic collaboration is expected to leverage the expertise of Araim Pharmaceuticals in scientific discovery and research with Vault Bioventures’ proven capability in clinical and regulatory development and commercialization in order to speed time-to-market, lower regulatory risk, and maximize commercial impact.

This collaboration is triggered by the transition of Araim Pharmaceuticals into the clinical stage of drug development following positive proof-of-concept studies in two distinct patient populations in two leading indications.

The foundation for this collaboration is the innovative scientific platform of Araim, which has shown significant positive findings in a wide array of disease modelsincluding in peripheral nerves (neuropathy), retinopathy, nephropathy, the central nervous system (neurodegeneration), cardiovascular injury, wound healing, and aging. This partnership is designed to enable the next phase of Araim’s growth by providing the expertise and experience in bringing first-in-class treatments to patients with limited options.

The team at Vault Bioventures will contribute to the executive management of Araim overseeing clinical and regulatory development, as well as business development licensing activities and commercial development. Joe Young, the CEO of Vault Bioventures, will serve as Chief Business Officer and Head of Corporate Development while Daiva Bajorunas, M.D., will serve as Chief Medical Officer.

Collectively, they and the team at Vault Bioventures have extensive experience engineering numerous successful products in chronic diseases, including within the cardio-metabolic space, complications of diabetes, and pain.

Araim Pharmaceuticals chairman of the board Tony Cerami said: "Today’s announced collaboration with Vault Bioventures is an important step in our journey to bring our innovation forward to impact the lives of millions of patients, which is our primary goal.

"The Vault team has an impressive record of accomplishment in advancing innovative therapies to their full potential, both in their prior roles in executive leadership within biopharmaceutical companies and with companies like Araim. I’m excited about our strategic partnership and believe it provides Araim with a necessary and powerful infrastructure to achieve our goals."

"The leadership of Araim has an impressive track record of ground-breaking scientific research and discovery which has positively affected large populations in some of the most devastating diseases. Araim has positioned itself well for the next phase of growth with the discovery of the innate repair receptor, demonstration of the potential broad application through a wide array of disease models, and successfully crossing the bridge to proof-of-concept in two different patient populations with ARA 290.

Our collective goal is to focus our efforts on moving the near-to-market indications forward while continuing to explore the breadth of opportunity the platform represents."

Araim Pharmaceuticals COO Annie Dunne said: "We were looking for a solution to the dilemma nearly every early stage company faces. How do we build towards our goal of reaching the patient when our core capability is scientific discovery and research?.

"What was attractive for us in this partnership is the proven track-record of Vault Bioventures to provide integrated capabilities across clinical, regulatory, and commercial development, as well as licensing. This provides Araim with the capability and flexibility to develop and commercialize our platform ourselves or to establish further partnerships if it accelerates progress towards our goal."