TELIOS PHARMACEUTICALS' RGD "MATRIX PEPTIDE"

TELIOS PHARMACEUTICALS' RGD "MATRIX PEPTIDE" technology has its first pharmaceutical application in Telio-Derm, a solid-phase gel that has just entered clinicals for severe thermal burns, skin ulcers and head/neck area wounds resulting from Mohs skin cancer surgery. San Diego-based Telios is developing drugs and devices employing RGD matrix peptide technology for a wide variety of wound-healing uses, "biocompatible implants," cardiovascular disease and cancers. The firm expects to introduce Telio-Derm in 1992. As explained by Telios, the matrix peptide technology is based on the RGD peptide composed of arginine, glycine and aspartic acid amino acids. RGD appears to "mediate" the interaction between cells and the "extracellular matrix" -- a kind of "glue" or meshwork of molecules that helps cells to support and order themselves into coherent, functioning body tissues. The matrix is believed to be key to healing wounds and treating disease and cells. It appears to interact only when the cell receptors known as "integrins" recognize and bind with RGD. Telio-Derm, for example, is viewed by the firm as a provisional matrix or "temporary scaffold" to provide support for tissues to rebuild in a wound. Telios said that Telio-Derm, which is resorbable, "allows deep wounds to start closing throughout the entire wound volume" in a uniform and organized structure rather than building up a new tissue bed from the bottom. The technology, therefore, is superior to genetically engineered growth factors, such as epidermal growth factors being developed by a number of drug companies, Telios maintains. Next furthest along in Telios' drug development pipeline is Oculos for "dry eye" syndrome. The ophthalmic solid-phase product employs the same peptide as Telio-Derm. Also in development are solid-phase matrix peptides to promote healing after eye injuries, infections or eye surgery. Telios is developing Oculos under a licensing agreement with Osaka, Japan-based Ono Pharmacetuical Co., Ltd. Ono, which holds marketing rights in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, is funding clinical testing and product development in its home country. In the U.S., Telios expects to file an IND for the same "dry eye" indication -- the prevention of corneal ulceration and blindness -- in October and predicts clinicals will begin in early December. In addition to the lead product Telio-Derm, other solid phase matrix-peptide products in development include PepTite 2000 biological coatings for artificial body parts. The coatings, currently in preclinicals, facilitate the bonding of implants -- such as heart valves, breast implants, ligaments, joint replacement and other orthopedic parts -- to surrounding tissues. Based on preclinical data, PepTite 2000's mediating action eliminates the problems associated with implants, such as blood clots, infection or rejection, Telios says. Future applications for the matrix-peptide technology include use as an inhibitor of cancer metastasis and for nerve regeneration, such as those ocurring in major head or spinal trauma, by combining RGD-peptides and laminin, a matrix glycoprotein. Other potential applications include inhibition of platelet aggregation and use as a transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) neutralizing drug to prevent fibrotic disorders due to abnormal accumulation of the extracellular matrix. Telios also holds rights to technology from the La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation and is developing a monoclonal antibody specific to TGF-beta and a recombinant form of human decorin, a protein that inhibits TGF-beta. A closely held private company, Telios was co-founded in 1987 by La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation President Erkki Ruoslahti, MD, and Michael Pierschbacher, PhD, who was then a foundation staff scientist and is now Telios' VP and scientific director. Joining co-founders Ruoslahti and Pierschbacher are a senior management with strong pharmaceutical credentials. Theodor Heinrichs is Chairman and CEO; Robert Erickson, PhD, is president and chief operating officer and Joyce Williams is VP of regulatory and clinical affairs. Heinrichs was previously chairman and CEO of Miles and Cutter Labs and has been an exec with Bayer AG's, Bayer Corp. and Pfizer. Erickson joined Telios from Cooper Labs, where he was VP of R&D; he also has been an exec at Integrated Genetics. Williams came from American Hospital Supply via NutraSweet. She is the current chairman of the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society. Telios was formed as a Foundation joint venture with Hambrecht & Quist with $4 mil. in seed funding. The company has recently finished a second round of private venture financing that brought the total raised to $12 mil. The La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation controls 25% of Telios. The company has right of first refusal to all Foundation discoveries until 1994 and exclusive commercialization rights to all matrix-peptide therapeutics through 1992.