University of Aarhus

Draupnir Bio completes €12 million seed round to progress development of oral small molecule degraders of extracellular proteins MP Healthcare and EIFO join existing investors, Gilde Healthcare Partners, Inkef Capital and Novo Holdings Copenhagen, Denmark, 17 July 2024 – Draupnir Bio (“Draupnir”), a biotechnology company harnessing the natural machinery of the lysosome to develop oral, small molecule degraders of extracellular disease-causing proteins, today announces equity investments totalling €12 million to support the Company’s ambition to revolutionise the field of targeted protein degradation (TPD). TPD is a rapidly emerging field in drug development, exploiting a cell’s own destruction machinery to tackle disease-causing proteins that have historically been highly challenging to target with conventional therapies. Yet first-generation approaches are exclusively limited to cytosolic targets, leaving extracellular and membrane-bound proteins – 40% of the human proteome – untouched. Draupnir is extending the potential of TPD to target extracellular and membrane-bound proteins in a pioneering approach using its novel and differentiated, proprietary technology platform, utilising lysosome receptors, which holds the potential to revolutionise the field of TPD. MP Healthcare, the corporate venture group of Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation, and the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO), a financing fund backed by the Danish government, join Draupnir’s existing investors, Gilde Healthcare Partners, Inkef Capital and Novo Holdings, investing a total of €12 million into the Company. The proceeds from the financing will be used to further develop Draupnir’s risk-diversified preclinical pipeline of oral, small molecule protein degraders, which have been proven against targets that are validated and those that have been traditionally difficult to drug. Andrew Hotchkiss, Chief Executive Officer of Draupnir Bio, said: “Draupnir has a bold ambition to pioneer the next frontier of extracellular protein degradation. Our novel technology platform targeting extracellular and membrane-bound disease proteins for degradation holds great promise for targets that have previously been difficult to target with small molecules or have been undruggable, and enables the development of new therapeutic approaches for complex conditions. We are delighted to welcome MP Healthcare and the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark as investors in the Company and thank our existing investors, Gilde Healthcare Partners, Inkef Capital and Novo Holdings, for their continued support.” - ENDS - For more information, please contact: Draupnir BioAndrew Hotchkiss, Chief Executive Officerinfo@draupnir.bio ICR ConsiliumDavid Daley, Kumail Waljee, Emmalee HoppePhone: +44 (0)20 3709 5700Email: draupnirbio@icrhealthcare.com About Draupnir BioDraupnir Bio is a Danish biotechnology company harnessing the natural machinery of the lysosome to develop oral, small molecule degraders of extracellular disease-causing proteins – the next frontier of targeted protein degradation (TPD), a rapidly emerging field that exploits a cell’s own destruction machinery to tackle disease-causing proteins that have historically been highly challenging to target with conventional therapies. Led by a highly experienced team of pharma and biotech industry leaders, the Company was spun-out from Aarhus University, Denmark and the Max-Planck Society. Backed by a syndicate of leading investors, including the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO), Gilde Healthcare Partners, Inkef Capital, Novo Holdings and MP Healthcare Venture Management, Draupnir is headquartered in Copenhagen, with research operations centred in Aarhus, Denmark. For more, visit our website at draupnir.bio and follow us on LinkedIn.

TUESDAY, July 16, 2024 -- Socioeconomic deprivation increases the risk for sustaining a traumatic brain injury (TBI), and in some age groups, it may also increase the risk for epilepsy after a TBI, according to a research letter published in the July issue of Epilepsy & Behavior . Kasper Lolk, Ph.D., from Aarhus University in Denmark, and colleagues examined whether the sex- and age-specific risk for TBI and epilepsy after TBI differed by individual- and neighborhood-level indices of socioeconomic deprivation. The analysis included all persons with an incident TBI and a matched (5:1) reference population from the general Danish population (2010 to 2015; 448,666 individuals). The researchers found that incidence rates of TBI were higher among persons from deprived neighborhoods compared with persons from nondeprived neighborhoods (259.0 per 100,000 person years, versus 231.3). Neighborhood deprivation was not a risk factor for epilepsy in the absence of TBI, although individual-level deprivation was associated with a higher risk for epilepsy in adults. The risk for epilepsy was higher after a TBI, regardless of age, sex, and neighborhood deprivation, compared with no TBI. The absolute (but not relative) risk for epilepsy after TBI was higher in adults of individual-level socioeconomic deprivation compared with adults without individual-level deprivation, while the relative (but not absolute) risk for epilepsy was higher in children and adolescents from socially deprived neighborhoods versus those not from deprived neighborhoods. "Jointly, these results suggest that TBI may be involved in the elevated incidence of epilepsy associated with poorer socioeconomic standing," the authors write. Abstract/Full Text Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.

Researchers have made a significant breakthrough by discovering that the drug 4-OI can enhance the effectiveness of a cancer-fighting viral agent. This may lead to treatment of cancers that are otherwise resistant to therapies. Researchers from Aarhus University have made a significant breakthrough by discovering that the drug 4-OI can enhance the effectiveness of a cancer-fighting viral agent. This may lead to treatment of cancers that are otherwise resistant to therapies. When a cancer cell doesn't respond to traditional therapies, doctors may turn to a sort of viral biological warfare, by deploying 'troops' in the form of viral agents that are specifically engineered to target and eliminate cancer cells. The mode of attack is to transform the tumor into an immunologically "hot" environment, making it more visible and recognisable to our immune system. Now, researchers from the Department of Biomedicine at Aarhus University have found a way to make one strain of viral agents even more effective. And the results are groundbreaking says lead researcher, Associate Professor David Olagnier: "We found that if we administer a specific viral agent called Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (VSVD51) along with a metabolite-drug called 4-Octyl-Itaconate (4-OI), we are able to treat cancers that are considered resistant to viral infections." In other words, by combining the drug and the viral agent, the researchers have managed to push the door open to possible treatments for cancers that have been immune to nearly all known treatments, including the viral agents. This is because some cancers have antiviral signaling, which enables them to combat the viral agents and resist the treatment. The results are particularly surprising because the drug 4-OI has, in other combinations, shown to have the completely opposite effect on different types of viruses. 4-OI is normally antiviral -- meaning it would actually stop viruses rather than boost them. But in this specific combination, 4-OI instead helps the cancer fighting viral agents to work better: "It is the combination of the specific virus and the drug that brings about a completely unique proviral effect, which potentially can have a significant impact on patients affected by cancer that we are currently unable to treat," explains David Olagnier. The new findings are an important step towards a new form of treatment, and they underline the need for consistently working to find new ways to treat the many forms of cancer we face, says David Olagnier: "Cancer is not a single disease but rather a hundred diseases with one name, so it is crucial that we develop multiple ways to eradicate the disease. The use of biologically active viral agents can potentially be a gamechanger for some currently incurable cancers. That's why our findings are so exciting and groundbreaking," he explains. For the research team, the next step is a more extensive pre-clinical testing of the combinational use of VSVD51 and 4-OI. "We are especially interested in testing this combination on tumours that have metastasised, which is when the cancer has started to spread, but also on liquid types of cancer like lymphomas," explains David Olagnier.