A company in Southfield has developed a technology platform designed to create medicines for undruggable targets, including diabetes, cancers, dementia, and more.
The licensed drug-discovery platform technology from Housey Pharma in Southfield has been awarded nine patents in the U.S. and dozens of other countries worldwide, with more pending.
The technology includes methods of discovering compounds that overcome drug-resistant cancers, generalized drug discovery, and lead-optimization methods applicable to all human diseases, and certain compounds.
Undruggable targets is a term used in the pharmaceutical industry to refer to biomolecules for which it was previously believed to be impossible to create a medicine capable of altering the biological function of the human body in a therapeutically beneficial manner.
“Housey Pharma has developed a technology platform to create effective medicines for the undruggable targets that are found in many human diseases, such as drug-resistant cancers, diabetes, neurodegenerative disorders such as dementia, and many other disease states,” says Dr. Gerard Housey, founder and CEO of Housey Pharma and one of the co-inventors of the technology.
Housey says the platform enables the creation of target-specific, cell-based assay systems through specific technologies in genetic engineering, biochemistry, and cell-biology. or biomolecules for which it was previously believed to be impossible to create a medicine capable of altering the biological function of the human body in a manner that is therapeutically beneficial.
The company also announced it has entered into license agreements of its core-enabling technologies for new-drug discovery and development with F. Hoffman-La Roche in Switzerland and the Janssen Research and Development subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson in New Jersey, the world’s two largest research-based pharmaceutical companies.
Both companies have annual research and development spending in excess of $10 billion.
“Breakthroughs in the discovery and development of new medicines are enabled through the use of this advanced technology platform,” Housey says. “We look forward to seeing innovative new medicines that benefit people around the world brought forth by our scientific colleagues at Roche and J&J. These companies have been at the forefront of innovations in medicine ranging from new treatments in oncology to COVID-19 vaccines.”
Housey Pharma’s technologies are being offered for licensure on a non-exclusive basis to other research-based pharmaceutical companies worldwide. Cell-based assay systems are research tools that use living cells to identify and refine new medicines.
The company is a commercial-stage, privately held biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery, research, development, and sale of medicines that address unserved medical and health needs. It plans to launch a Phase 2 clinical program on one of its anti-diabetic medications in 2021.
The botanical compound targets the Insulin Receptor Substrate-2 pathway in human cells. The protein was previously considered to be an undruggable target. Housey Pharma has also developed the world’s first orally active compound that directly targets the same pathway that insulin uses to stimulate human cells to remove sugar from the bloodstream.
Housey Pharma’s compounds enhance insulin action in such a way that little or no insulin is needed to keep blood sugar under control.
