CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & NEW YORK—BIND Therapeutics Inc. has launched a research collaboration with biopharmaceutical company Synergy Pharmaceuticals Inc., which is pioneering the development of uroguanylin analogs as potential new treatments for functional gastrointestinal (GI) disorders and inflammatory bowel disease. The companies will be working together to generate ACCURINS that incorporate Synergy's proprietary uroguanylin analogs to investigate the potential targeting of guanylate cyclase-C (GC-C) receptors expressed on tumors, specifically GI malignancies. Should their work achieve proof of concept, BIND and Synergy expect to expand the agreement to enhance the potential effect of uroguanylin-based ACCURINS by adding therapeutic payloads. No financial terms for the deal were disclosed.
"We are pleased to collaborate with BIND Therapeutics on this project, which we believe can broaden the potential therapeutic applications of our proprietary uroguanylin-based platform," Dr. Kunwar Shailubhai, chief scientific officer and executive vice president of Synergy Pharmaceuticals, remarked in a press release. "BIND's ACCURIN technology has been shown to target diseased tissues with a wide variety of therapeutic payloads. We have separately presented data showing that uroguanylin analogs specifically bind to different types of colorectal polyps and tumor in mice. Together, we believe that we can create uroguanylin-based ACCURINS that have the potential to provide new treatment options in GI cancer."
Uroguanylin is a naturally occurring GI peptide that activates the intestinal GC-C receptor, a known target for stimulating a variety of physiological responses. Last year, plecanatide, Synergy's lead uroguanylin analog for functional GI disorders, successfully completed Phase 3 clinical trials for chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC), and Synergy recently filed a new drug application for the compound as a treatment for CIC. In addition, Synergy also recently announced positive data on its second uroguanylin analog, dolcanatide, in a Phase 1b proof-of-concept study in ulcerative colitis patients.
BIND's ACCURINS are a new class of targeted therapeutics developed using the company's Medicinal Nanoengineering platform. These nanoparticles are engineered to have a profound impact on the treatment of disease. Their design enables prolonged circulation, controlled and tunable release and selective targeting of a therapeutic payload to diseased tissue or cells, while avoiding issues such as immune surveillance detection and systemic toxicities. ACCURINS can be generated for multiple therapeutic applications and have the potential to integrate numerous payloads, including highly potent drugs with mechanism-based toxicities that limit therapeutic benefit, DNA, RNA, proteins and immunotherapy agents.
"This collaboration represents another important advance as we develop ACCURINS with the potential to target a broad range of cells with novel therapeutic payloads," Dr. Jonathan Yingling, chief scientific officer for BIND Therapeutics, commented in a statement. "The versatility of our platform is demonstrated by our wide range of collaborations and the ability to leverage our technology platform in a wide variety of applications. We believe the complementary technologies of Synergy and BIND have the potential to generate novel uroguanylin-based therapies that could have a profound impact on the treatment of diseases."
SOURCE: BIND Therapeutics press release
