Alvine Pharmaceuticals Inc.
This article was originally published in Start Up
Executive Summary
Alvine Pharmaceuticals aims to treat celiac disease-a common hereditary autoimmune disorder in which the intestinal lining reacts to wheat, barley or rye gluten, leading to pain, bloating, and damage to the gut--with an orally available drug meant to degrade gluten in the stomach into peptide fragments too small to stimulate an immune response. Generally, antigens need to be at least nine amino acids long to rouse an immune response, but Alvine expects its lead compound to chop up gluten into peptide fragments a third that size or smaller.
You may also be interested in...
Deals Of The Week: Keeping Score – Valeant Wants Actavis, Which Covets Warner Chilcott …
Meanwhile, companies like Mylan and Novartis also reportedly have joined the Actavis chase. In addition, there’s been deal-making news from Elan and Theravance, Merck-Serono and Quintiles, and AbbVie and Alvine.
Alvine Hopes To Bring The First Celiac Drug To Market With New Partner AbbVie
Alvine and AbbVie have inked a deal that could allow the larger company to acquire the biotech based on results of a Phase IIb trial for its celiac disease treatment.
Genetic Analysis AS
A number of diseases are associated with or influenced by imbalances in gut bacteria, including autism and GI disorders such as ulcers, Crohn's disease, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, colon cancer, and necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm infants. Many other conditions not obviously associated with the gastrointestinal tract also seem to be influenced by imbalance in the gut, such as allergies, eczema, depression and obesity. Genetic Analysis is developing the G-MAP, a microbiota array technology that analyzes and profiles the gut microflora and associates the resulting profile with various diseases.