Eyestem Archives

Bangalore, also known as Bengaluru, is widely recognized as India’s leading biotech hub, with some of the largest biotech companies in the country based in the city. In this article, we take a look at five biotechs to come out of Bangalore. Home to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-Camp), Bangalore is able to provide biotech companies with technology platforms to conduct their research, and help startups by giving them access to facilities and mentors they might otherwise struggle to find. Not only has this made Bangalore the country’s leading biotech hub, it has also led to India as a whole becoming home to approximately 5,000 biotech companies, including more than 4,000 startups. Due to its large size and population, there are other hubs emerging across the country, such as Kolkata, Kalyani, Pune, and Faridabad, among others. But in this article, we will be focusing on companies based in Bangalore; here, in alphabetical order, is a list of five of the top biotechs you can find in the city. Eyestem As its name suggests, Eyestem focuses on developing cell therapies for eye disorders, with a long-term vision of creating a scalable cell therapy platform to treat incurable diseases and to provide the bottom 99% of the population globally with access to these newer technologies. The Bangalore-based biotech company’s lead product is EyeCyte-RPE, which is aimed at treating dry age-related macular degeneration (dry AMD) - a condition characterized by the thinning and breaking down of the macular layers located at the back of the eye, leading to blurred or reduced central vision. There is currently no cure for the disease, and dry AMD is thought to be the largest cause of incurable blindness in people over 60, affecting around 170 million people worldwide. Because dry AMD leads to a loss of retinal pigment epithelium - a fundamental component of the retina that plays a major role in visual functions - EyeCyte-RPE works by replacing the lost retinal pigment epithelium cells, and is designed to restore sight for patients in the early stages of dry AMD, as well as to arrest losses for those in the later stages. The company raised $6.4 million in a series A funding round in August 2022, and, more recently, announced that it had appointed Ravi Achar as Head - North American Strategy and engaged Stardling Yocca Carlson & Rauth as its U.S. law firm, in an attempt to lay the groundwork for its global expansion. GangaGen Biotechnologies Private Limited GangaGen Biotechnologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bactoclear Holdings Pte. Ltd., is working on engineering novel treatments for serious, drug-resistant bacterial infections, through the discovery, design and development of highly specific and safe protein antibacterials. The company’s proprietary platform, called the Protein Antibacterial Technology Platform (PATP), is based on its knowledge of phage biology, naturally occurring proteins, and the ability to identify and model functional domains of putative antibacterial proteins using bioinformatics. PATP helps to rapidly confirm antibacterial activity targeting different bacterial proteins. Ectolysin P128 is GangaGen’s lead candidate, and is a recombinant, chimeric protein that targets Staphylococcus aureus - a bacterium that has developed a resistance to some antibiotics, which can potentially cause serious bloodstream infections, pneumonia, and bone and joint infections if left untreated. P128 has been shown to be effective both in vitro and in vivo against multidrug resistant pathogens, including methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant S. aureus (VRSA), and has been tested in a phase 1/2A study directed towards the treatment of nasal carriage of S. aureus. Immuneel Therapeutics Private Limited CAR-T cell therapies are generally associated with a high cost and are mostly only available in wealthy countries, but Immuneel Therapeutics is aiming to make cell therapies affordable and accessible to people living in India, offering hope to cancer patients in the country. In 2022, the Bangalore-based biotech company announced it had raised $15 million in series A financing to help it advance its development pipeline and scale. At the same time, it also announced that it had begun patient dosing in a phase 2 CAR-T trial called IMAGINE, which marked the first industry sponsored CAR-T trial in India. Immuneel has exclusive rights to the CD-19 CAR-T cell therapy, ARI-0001/IMN-003A, from Hospital Clínic de Barcelona and Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer in Spain to develop, manufacture and commercialize in India via technology transfer. ARI-0001 has already been approved by the Spanish Drug Agency (AEMPS). PlasmaGen BioSciences Specializing exclusively in plasma protein and speciality care therapy, PlasmaGen Biosciences believes there is a huge gap between the availability of plasma and speciality care products and the immense need for these types of therapies in India and other developing economies. After raising $25 million in 2017 from global venture capital firm Eight Roads Ventures, the Bangalore-based biotech company has several products already approved for therapeutic areas, including neurology, hematology, oncology, immunology, rheumatology, gynecology and dermatology. The company also works closely with government bodies on commitments to addressing issues such as affordability, accessibility, and hemovigilance, in order to grow plasma protein therapy among the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations, as well as other developing economies. Zumutor Biologics Founded in 2013, with headquarters in the U.S. and an ISO 9001:2015 laboratory in Bangalore, the biotech Zumutor Biologics is an immuno-oncology company working in the area of targeted natural killer (NK) cell therapeutics. The company has developed a fully human proprietary mAb technology platform (INABLR) that facilitates rapid identification of selective and potent mAbs with potential to enhance antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) activity. Meanwhile, Zumutor’s lead candidate, ZM008, is a first-in-class monoclonal antibody that blocks the interaction between LLT1 and CD161 - whose interaction plays an important role in cancer immune surveillance - which subsequently activates NK cells, establishing a downstream tumor-killing mechanism of action (MOA).

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