Beneficiary: Aptarion Biotech AG
Funding: 01.05.2019 bis 30.04.2021, 2.470.956 Euro

Project description

Aptarion Biotech AG was founded in Berlin in 2016 and has set itself the goal of developing innovative drugs for the treatment of diseases with a high medical need. Its main focus is on the new active substance AON-D21, a selective blocker of the body's own messenger C5a. 

C5a is released during inflammatory processes in the body and is regarded as a central amplifier of pathogenic processes in severe diseases. For example, patients with severe infectious diseases often suffer from a life-threatening organ failure, which is not caused by the infection itself, but by processes that get out of hand while protecting the body against the infection but instead damage the organs. Research in recent years has shown that C5a contributes significantly to this harmful overactivation. The intensification of pathogenic processes by C5a is not limited to infectious diseases, but has also been described, for example, in dermatological diseases and diseases of the kidneys. With the help of AON-D21 it could also be shown that C5a is involved in the progression of cancer and that AON-D21 could increase the efficacy of immunotherapies. Due to the central function of C5a, Aptarion has with AON-D21 a promising active substance with a broad application potential.

After the efficacy of AON-D21 has been demonstrated in numerous disease models, Aptarion aims to make this compound available to patients as quickly as possible. In the course of this, the project focuses on providing evidence of the reliability as well as the toxicological safety of the substance. This creates the prerequisites for clinical studies and subsequent approval as a drug.