Schlieren, Zürich, Switzerland · 12 July 2022
Rejuveron Life Sciences AG (‘Rejuveron’), a Zürich-based biotechnology company developing therapies to promote healthy aging, is pleased to announce that the first participant has been treated in Endogena Therapeutics’ phase 1/2a clinical study of its lead product, EA-2353, a photoreceptor regeneration treatment for retinitis pigmentosa (RP).
See Endogena’s full press release here.
Rejuveron has a near-majority holding in Endogena, an endogenous regenerative therapeutics company, announcing in late 2021 that it had invested a further $20m in Endogena’s $29 million series A financing round, which has enabled it to progress treatments targeting degenerative diseases of the eye.
This is the second program in the Rejuveron pipeline to enter clinical trials and follows the announcement in March that Rejuvenate BioMed, a Belgium-based biomedical company developing novel combination drugs for age-related diseases had commenced its first Phase 1 clinical trial assessing the company’s lead candidate RJx-01 for the treatment of sarcopenia.
Endogena’s EA-2353 takes a novel, small-molecule approach and selectively activates endogenous retinal stem and progenitor cells, which differentiate into photoreceptors and can hence potentially preserve or restore visual function. This gene-independent treatment approach has significant advantages in RP, which has multiple genetic causes. EA-2353 has been granted orphan drug designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in May 2021.
For more information on the clinical trials, please visit www.clinicaltrials.gov (Reference: NCT05392751).
About Rejuveron
Rejuveron is a clinical-stage biotechnology company creating therapies to improve healthy aging. Its experienced drug discovery and development team applies a deep understanding of the biology of aging, alongside technological advances in biopharmaceutical R&D, to progress a new generation of medicines that will help people to age better and live longer.
Through its programs, each uniquely focused on preventing, repairing, or reversing the hallmarks of aging, Rejuveron is advancing a therapeutic pipeline that ranges from drug discovery to the clinic. Rejuveron’s business model is to create or acquire innovative programs, each being held within a wholly owned or majority-owned company.
The current portfolio is diversified across modalities, stages, as well as aging hallmarks, and includes a revolutionary small molecule approach to regenerate endogenous stem cell, currently in a Phase 1/2a in the USA in retinitis pigmentosa patients; a novel drug combination therapy for sarcopenia in a Phase 1b human trial.
Rejuveron has headquarters and state-of-the-art laboratories in Switzerland’s biotech hub in Bio-Technopark Schlieren, Zürich with Abu Dhabi operations in the process of being set up. Its current portfolio includes: Endogena Therapeutics (Switzerland, USA & Canada), Rejuveron Senescence Therapeutics (Switzerland & Spain), Rejuveron Vascular Therapeutics (Switzerland), Rejuveron Telomere Therapeutics (Switzerland), Rejuvenate BioMed (Belgium) and Boost Neuroscience (US).
Co-founded in 2019 by entrepreneurial scientist, Matthias Steger, and visionary investor, Christian Angermayer, Rejuveron has state-of-the-art incubator laboratory facilities and offices at its headquarters in Zürich’s Bio-Technopark (Switzerland) as well as program teams located in the USA, Canada, Spain and Belgium.
