ACTHERA
ACTHERA is a Swiss biotech company and is the result of over 10 years of academic research & development in the universities of Basel, Fribourg and Texas Dallas (USA). The therapeutic platform is based on Hard-Shelled Liposomes (HSLs) that can contain a broad variety of therapeutically active ingredients. ACTHERA’s unique and highly innovative release mechanism will allow the release of active ingredients at therapeutic sites, thus revealing an extraordinarily wide field of applications to transform numerous therapeutic areas. By releasing the drug locally at the disease tissue the systemic burden to the body will be significantly reduced and therefore the therapeutics window of drug improved.
Company details
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- Business Type:
- Manufacturer
- Industry Type:
- Medical Research
- Market Focus:
- Nationally (across the country)
Background
It all started in the back of an ambulance. Co-founder and MD T. Saxer was loosing critical heart attack patients on the way to the hospital. He was unable to administer life-saving drugs due to their severe side-effects. He was wondering if there was a way to administer drugs only at the disease side and therefore significantly reducing life-threatening side effects. The seed for Acthera was planted, but what he didn’t imagine was that this technology is applicable in many more disease indications…
Mission
Today, innumerous drugs suffer from low efficacy, systemic side effects and a poor cost-benefit ratio, remaining far below their potential. Innovative and current therapies fail to make drugs sufficiently available at the site of need due to lack of safe and reliable targeted release technologies. Poor safety and bioavailability are major causes of failures in drug development. ACTHERA’s Hard-Shelled Liposomes (HSLs) can fill a mission-critical gap for targeted, safe and efficacious drug release in countless indications. They have the potential to make novel therapies possible for the first time ever, thus create new markets and replace current market standards in various therapeutic approaches, incl. Medical technology, and to unleash the full potential of available therapies.
Natural liposomes are formable and stretchable. In contrast, ACTHERA’s HSLs have significantly different properties that make them unique for targeted drug release. After being loaded with a drug cargo, they can burst, and therefore release their cargo, under distinct and controllable pressure changes that occur either internally, linked to a pathology, or that are externally triggered by ultrasound or laser. For example, HSL’s could deploy their cargo upon changes in pressure in the human circular system at the location of stenosis, possibly replacing stents. HSL’s release active therapeutic agents directly at the diseased site, thus increasing efficacy and reducing toxicity.
