BioWorld International Correspondent

PARIS - A new biotechnology start-up, Novagali SAS, officially inaugurated its research laboratory in the incubator of the Génopôle, the French national biotechnology science and business park, late last month.

The company was founded in August and became truly operational a few months later, after raising FFr25 million (US$3.6 million) in seed funding from two French venture capital funds, CDC Innovation and Auriga. Other shareholders include Novagali's founder, Simon Benita, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the university's investment offshoot, Vissum.

Novagali has developed and patented two novel forms of drug delivery that use positively charged submicronic emulsions and self-emulsifying oily formulations to improve the bioavailability of lipophile active principles, whether delivered by oral, ocular, topical or intravenous administration.

The company's CEO, Ben Van Der Kooij, told BioWorld International that "one of the big problems facing the pharmaceutical industry is that most of the compounds coming out of drug development are not soluble in water." Novagali's technology renders them soluble in the emulsion, and hence deliverable by intravenous injection as well as other modes of administration. And because the emulsion is submicronic and positively charged, it circulates throughout the organism and is retained for longer, so more of the drug reaches the target. Moreover, when taken orally, this formulation greatly increases the drug's bioavailability.

Novagali said the technology can not only improve the therapeutic efficacy of new drugs being developed but also, as development project manager Grégory Lambert put it, "give a second life to old drugs" whose patents have expired or are about to. The therapeutic applications of this delivery method range from treatments for cancer, infectious diseases, age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) and viral and respiratory diseases to gene therapy and organ transplants.

Van Der Kooij explained that Novagali was pursuing a two-pronged corporate strategy, concluding fee-for-service contracts with drug development companies for assisting them in formulating new drugs and at the same time undertaking in-house research programs financed in part by public funds. As regards the former, it has so far signed two strategic partnership agreements, one with the German chemical giant Bayer AG covering a new compound in a therapeutic field Van Der Kooij declined to identify, and one with the French firm NicOx SA covering the cardiovascular area. A third agreement "is under negotiation with an international pharmaceutical company," said Van Der Kooij.

As regards its in-house research, Novagali has two programs under way, one focused on cancer, for which it is hoping to obtain a grant from the French National Research Promotion Agency, and the other aimed at developing a treatment for ARMD, for which it has applied to the European Commission for funding. The ARMD program is being conducted in collaboration with France's National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM) and Jerusalem University.

Novagali is also in discussions for the conclusion of research collaborations with other academic and research establishments in France, Europe and the U.S. Looking to the future, Van Der Kooij said the company was already planning another funding round in 12 months, in which it hopes to raise EUR15 million (US$14 million).