Mesentech announces the successful dosing of the first human participants in a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled clinical trial.

Ruoxi (Rosy) Hu Rosy is a member of the investment team at Morningside. Previously, she was on the investment team at Mass General Brigham Ventures where she focused on company creation and led early-stage seed investments. Rosy was trained as a molecular biologist. She received her PhD from Harvard University and undergraduate degree from Queen’s University in Canada.

Intellectual property covering the new chemical entities for bone targeting conjugate drugs was granted by Canadian Intellectual Property Office. Expiration in 2031.

"Design, Synthesis, Pharmacokinetics, and Biodistribution of a Series of Bone-Targeting EP4 Receptor Agonist Prodrugs for Treatment of Osteoporosis and Other Bone Conditions"

Abstract: Treatment with MES-1007 significantly improved bone density and geometry in severe osteogenesis imperfecta Col1a1(Jrt) /+ . This brittle bone disease genotype is so severe that animals suffer bone fractures spontaneously (without trauma). MES1007 has shown efficacy in a severe disease that no other anabolic bone therapeutic could.

Dr. Frank Rauch a pediatrician based in Shriners Hospitals for Children presented the need for bone therapy in Duchenne muscular dystrophy. He was joined by Dr. Lianna Orlando from CureDuchenne and Dr. Anand Mehta (endocrinologist at Stanford Health Partners and Mesentech's chief medical officer) in a 40 minute webinar for patients looking into this new therapeutic option.

David served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Zimmer Biomet (NYSE and SIX: ZBH) from 2007 to 2017. He joined the company as Senior Vice President and General Counsel in 2001 following the company’s spin-off from Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Barbara Yanni has over thirty-five years of experience in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.

The investment supports Mesentech’s lead program, MES-1007, into clinical development and its evaluation in Duchenne muscular dystrophy.  Pediatric osteoporosis is a significant problem for DMD patients, leading to frequent fractures and premature loss of ambulation.  There are currently no approved therapies for bone wastage for individuals affected by Duchenne. There is tremendous potential for MES-1007 to be the first targeted therapy to specifically address bone wastage in these individuals.

Sam has been a healthcare venture capital investor since 2002. He is a founding partner at Acuris, which was recently launched by the MedImmune Ventures team out of AstraZeneca.

Jay Mohr, an experienced healthcare executive, transaction advisor and entrepreneur joins Mesentech as an independent director. For over 25 years Jay held P&L responsibilities and C-level roles in established as well as venture backed companies.

Mesentech was featured in Biotech Insights. 

Mesentech was announced winner of BIO's Startup Stadium competition. The BIO International Convention is the world’s largest gathering of the biotechnology industry. 

CQDM in conjunction with a pharmaceutical company partner invested $1.55 in Mesentech. Mesentech intends to advance MES-1007 through preclinical toxicology in order to validate how a bone-targeting technology can remedy peripheral organ toxicity while enhancing pharmacological efficacy. 

These two preclinical research revealed that Mesentech drug candidates MES-1007 and MES-1088 (previously referred to as C3 and C6) resulted in significant osteoinduction on a critical bone defect. The critical defect was repaired with bone-grafting biomaterials such as Geistlich Bio-Oss®  or a generic bone powder (monetite) that was fabricated  in-house. These bone matrices were used either alone or drugged with either MES-1007 or MES-1088. The Journal of Periodontology discusses Geistlich Bio-Oss®  performance while the Journal of Biomedical Materials discusses the performance of monetite. The addition of an osteoinductive vastly improves the performance of both of these compounds and raises questions on the utility of non-resorbable bone matrix. 

Treatment with MES-1007 significantly increased trabecular bone volume and vertebral bone mineral density versus controls. There was also significant improvement in the vertebral load bearing abilities and stimulation of bone formation in femurs after MES-1007. This paper also proves that conjugation of EP4 and the bone-targeting linker is vital to anabolic efficacy.

US Patent 20180170951 AMIDE-LINKED EP4 AGONIST-BISPHOSPHONATE COMPOUNDS AND USES THEREOF covering the company's clinical candidates has been granted. It is owned by SFU and licensed exclusively to Mesentech Inc.

e-Fund, a British Columbia Venture Capital Corporation (VCC), closed its investment in Mesentech on 24th May 2019. This investment will enable Mesentech to initiate safety trials of a candidate conjugate drug for reversing bone-loss.

Mesentech has won a coveted position at the Merck Invention Accelerator in partnership with the University of Alberta.  Merck launched the first Invention Accelerator in Edmonton at the end of 2018. The program consists of non-dilutive funding, lab space, and mentorship from Merck's business and clinical development teams. This relationship does not impair Mesentech's commercial rights. 

Dr. Roland Baron, is a professor at the Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, and chair of oral medicine at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. Formerly, Dr Baron was professor of orthopedics and cell biology at Yale University School of Medicine and editor-in-chief of the Journal of the International Bone and Mineral Society. Between 1994 and 2002 was vice-president and head of the bone diseases group at Hoechst Marion Roussel and then Aventis. Prof. Baron has published over 300 scientific papers in the field of bone biology and bone diseases.

The ISS National Lab will be testing Mesentech's bone-anabolic compounds on the International Space Station for their potential to reverse osteoporosis related to weightlessness in space. This research is being being conducted with the support of the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space in collaboration with Houston Methodist Hospital. Tentative launch date is January 2020 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Dragon. 

Dr. Thompson is a former executive of Alexion where he was global leader of the asfotase alfa (Stensiq) program for the treatment of hypophosphatasia. Previously he was Executive Vice-President at Pfizer where he developed and commercialized lasofoxifene (Fablyn). Dr. Thompson started his career at Merck under the leadership of Gideon Rodan where he developed and commercialized Fosamax. 

One of Mesentech's candidate drugs, C3, was used in a new biomaterial. Experimenters at Mount Sinai hospital used a brushite or monetite base with or without C3 implanted onto rabbit calvaria. The grafts containing C3 integrated with new bone extending 80% through the graft area while the C3 lacking grafts showed decreased surface integration of 38%. Moreover, C3 containing grafts had 2.7mm vertical bone augmentation compared to nil for C3 deficient grafts.  The advantages of this new graft drug formulation in future would be to provide more predictable vertical bone regeneration, which will ultimately benefit patients undergoing dental implant placement.

Researchers at the University of Toronto are incorporating Mesentech's bone-specific drugs to create a new anabolic-bone-biomaterial for surgical indications with the hope crating a stronger more natural bone much faster than currently available techniques. 

Center for the Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine completed an investment in Mesentech at the close of 2018. 

“Prostaglandin-bisphosphonate conjugate compounds, methods of making same, and uses thereof” granted 2018-09-05 (Patent is owned by SFU and licensed exclusively to Mesentech Inc.)

American Academy of Implant Dentistry publishes clinical note (The Challenge of Predictable Vertical Alveolar Ridge Augmentation for Dental Implant Site Development)

Third conjugate anabolic molecule, "C3," structure published. Amide-linked ep4 agonist-bisphosphonate compounds and uses thereof (Patent is owned by SFU and licensed exclusively to Mesentech Inc.)

Drs Sheikh and Glogauer won first place at 66th annual AAID conference in San Diego for poster describing original research using Mesentech's novel bone-anabolic conjugates 

US Patent #9650414 “New classes of EP4 conjugate compounds -II; Dual Function Bone-targeting Peptide linked Pro-drugs” granted 2017-05-16. This covers MES1008. This Patent is owned by SFU and licensed exclusively to Mesentech Inc.