History
The TopAct™ technology platform was discovered in 1994 by scientists at the University of Ghent under the leadership of Dr Lothar Steidler, and provides an elegant solution for the delivery of therapeutic proteins and peptides via oral administration instead of injection.
Dr Steidler and his colleagues, later at the Flanders Institute of Biotechnology (VIB), further developed and improved TopAct™ , turning it into a versatile and broadly applicable platform that enables the engineering of food-grade bacteria to become efficient production and delivery units for therapeutic proteins and peptides. Subsequently, a team of scientists led by Dr Pieter Rottiers provided in vivo proof-of-concept for the therapeutic effect of these engineered bacteria. A new concept was born: ActoBiotics™ .
In June 2006, ActoGeniX was founded as a spin-off from VIB and the University of Ghent, to commercially develop ActoBiotics™ . At that stage, VIB contributed their entire patent portfolio, ongoing programs and existing know-how exclusively to ActoGeniX.
In January 2007, ActoGeniX closed a Series A funding round of €20 million, one of the largest among European biotech start-ups, from a syndicate of experienced life science investors including GIMV, Biotech Fund Flanders and Baekeland Fund (Belgium), Life Sciences Partners and Aescap (The Netherlands) and Ventech (France).
In July 2007, ActoGeniX announced the approval of a €3 million grant from the Institute for Promotion of Innovation by Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT), to support its innovative therapeutic drug development activities during a two-year period.
In the first quarter of 2009, ActoGeniX announced that it had raised an additional €15.5 million from a strong syndicate of life science investors, including new investor Biovest (Belgium) as well as the existing investors.
In the second quarter of 2009, ActoGeniX was awarded a €0.9 million grant by IWT, to support the clinical development of AG013, a novel ActoBiotic™ for the treatment of oral mucositis in cancer patients.
Today, ActoGeniX holds a broad portfolio of ActoBiotics™ for the treatment of several gastrointestinal, immunological and metabolic diseases.
AG013, the Company’s lead product, is currently being developed for the treatment of oral mucositis. In May 2009, the FDA approved ActoGeniX’s IND application, allowing the Company to initiate a phase 1B clinical trial with AG013 in cancer patients at risk of developing oral mucositis. The phase 1B study was conducted in 6 reputed cancer centers in the US. Recently, the study has been finalized. AG013 was proven to be safe and well tolerated. Analysis of initial efficacy showed a 35% reduction of the percentage of days with ulcerative oral mucositis in the AG013-treated patients versus the placebo-treated patients. Furthermore, close to 30% of the patients treated with AG013 were full responders while all placebo-treated patients developed ulcerative oral mucositis.
ActoGeniX is further developing a range of ActoBiotics™ expressing and secreting different bio-therapeutics such as anti-TNF-alpha monoclonal antibodies and antibody fragments (inflammatory bowel disease), IL-27 (inflammatory bowel disease, celiac disease), toxin-neutralizing antibodies (Clostridium difficile-associated enteropathy), and antigens (celiac disease, type 1 diabetes).
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15/09/2011
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18/02/2011
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01/02/2011
ActoGeniX receives IWT grant for treatment of Clostridium difficile-associated enteric disease