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Investment
Opportunities. In economic terms, the totalcosts due to osteoporosis
are $35 billion worldwide; the total bone disease diagnostics and therapies
market will reach $90 - 100 billion within the next two decades. Based on
current sales of therapies that inhibit bone thining without curing the
disease, an orally available agent for stimulating bone formation could
be expected to reach annual sales of $1B. Topical or intravenous agents
for bone healing would be expected to reach $200 - 400M in annual sales.
Velcura’s
Target Discovery Program. Velcura Therapeutics, Inc develops biological,
DNA-based, or small molecule therapies directed at accelerating bone formation.
Our long-term goal is to become a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company.
Our initial objectives, then, are to continue our in-house target discovery
program Discoveries from this program are partnered with major pharmaceutical
companies to co-develop these into therapies. Velcura is seeking long-lasting
strategic partnerships with companies interested in bone replacement or
repair. This provides Velcura with revenues in the form of R&D and milestone
payments.
Velcura’s
Strategic Partner Program. Since the timeline for development of
a novel pharmaceutical is 12 to 15 years, and costs upwards of $800 million.
Velcura’s partnerships with biopharmaceutical companies provide them
with a value proposition that shortens their R&D development time. Currently,
biopharmaceutical companies spend $5 – 10B is spent on discovery and
target validation, with up to 20% of this budget being spent in bone related
disease in some companies. Increasingly, such firms outsource their discovery
phase to smaller firms and actively participate only when lead molecules
or compounds (drugs) are identified, in order to then design and proceed
with clinical testing and trials.
Velcura’s
Intellectual Property:
The Company’s unique position is attributable to the ability to isolate
human cells and efficiently generate human bone outside the body. Coupled
with proprietary biological assays and computer-assisted analysis, this
allows us to rapidly assess the effects of target genes or compounds on
bone formation. Five patents (two issued – Nos. 6,576,465 and. 5,858,782
- the others pending) cover this aspect of Velcura’s intellectual
property. These patents cover all aspects of the use of human bone precursor
cells that develop into bone-forming cells, of bone accessory cells that
produce novel bone growth factors, and of the process for the formations
of bone outside the body. An additional three patents have been filed that
cover the process of bone metastasis in cancer. Our on-going IP plan involves
using both offensive and defensive patent strategies to further strengthen
our position as the only company that can grow human bone and utilize that
process for drug discovery (and/or therapeutic applications). We are currently
preparing a filing on our first molecular target for bone formation.
Please join Velcura’s quest for excellence in the expanding field
of bone therapy by contacting us as follows:
Michael
Long, CEO: mwlong@velcura.com
Mary
Ann Alger CFO: maalger@velcura.com
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734-973-1000 |
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