Corbin Therapeutics, headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, was spun out of venture capital company AmorChem.
Corbin Therapeutics, headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, was spun out of venture capital company AmorChem. Along with the spinout, Corbin took AmorChem’s ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase 15 (USP15) enzyme technology.
USP15 regulates type 1 interferon response and is part of the pathogenesis of neuroinflammation. The company’s scientific work was developed in the laboratory of Philippe Gros, a professor in the Department of Biochemistry at McGill University in Montreal.
“The results obtained in these animal models clearly suggest that UPS15 and its downstream effectors are interesting drug targets, inhibition of which might be the key to preventing and treating multiple sclerosis,” said Elizabeth Douville, managing partner of AmorChem in a Jan. 9, 2017 statement on the day the company was founded. “As our research program enters this next important phase of drug discovery and development, the spin off into a biotech company is appropriate.”
Company Leadership
Véronique Bougie – Chief Executive Officer. Bougie became CEO at Corbin in October 2017. Bougie is also COO at Mperia Therapeutics Inc.
Philippe Gros – Chief Scientific Officer. Gros is also a professor in the Department of Biochemistry at McGill University.
Maxime Ranger – A general partner with AmorChem, Ranger is also the chief executive officer of Mperia Therapeutics and an adjunct professor of Pharmacy at the University of Montreal. He is also a board member of SemaThera and acting chief executive officer of Eosinate Therapeutics.
Company Financing
Corbin launched with $1 million (CAD) of seed funding in January 2017. The funding is being used to screen various compound libraries to identify lead candidates that can inhibit the USP15 enzyme.
Pipeline
Corbin is currently screening compound libraries to identify a possible lead product candidate that can inhibit the USP15 enzyme for multiple sclerosis (MS).
Ranger said in a statement, “USP15 target opens a promising therapeutic track towards therapies for 2.5 million MS patients worldwide, where Canada features one of the highest MS rates with a total of 100,000 affected patients.”
Market Competition
The dominant player in the multiple sclerosis market is Cambridge, Mass.-based Biogen. Biogen has six drugs in its portfolio for MS, including its top sellers, Tysabri and Tecfidera. But other major companies, including Roche/Genentech, Novartis and Celgene are significant players in the market.
Dollars and Deals
In addition to spinning off from AmorChem in January, Corbin signed an exclusive, worldwide license with McGill University on a USP15-based drug discovery platform used to screen compound libraries and identify the USP15 inhibitor as a drug candidate. “Corbin Therapeutics is seen as a great achievement after many years of intense and high-quality researched conducted by Dr. Philippe Gros,” said Rose Goldstein, vice principal, Research and International Relations, for McGill University, in a statement.”
In May, Corbin announced a research-and-development collaboration with Toronto, Ontario-based Proteorex Therapeutics. The deal calls for identifying small molecules that inhibit a conserved ubiquitin protein. Proteorex received an undisclosed upfront payment and potential milestone payments. “Corbin recognized the high value and great potential of Proteorex’s innovative technology platform to find novel small molecules inhibiting USP15,” Ranger said in a statement.
And also in May, Corbin signed a collaboration deal with Dundee, Scotland’s University of Dundee and its Drug Discovery Unit (DDU) to screen and identify USP15 inhibitors. Ranger said in a statement, “We are very pleased to make this alliance with DDU, where both combine their complementary expertise into novel target validation and efforts to identify promising inhibitors of USP15.”
