The number of patients worldwide diagnosed with diabetes and obesity has been increasing at an alarming rate, showing no signs of abating. Currently, 1 in 10 adults are living with diabetes, and childhood rates of both diabetes and obesity are on a steep upward trajectory. Obesity cases have tripled in the past decade and consequently heart disease, stroke, dementia and other comorbidities too are on the rise. By 2035, it’s predicted that more than half of the world’s population, that’s over 4 billion people, will be classified as obese.
In recent years, GLP1 receptor agonists (GLP1 RAs) have become standard of care but unmet medical needs remain high. Patients and physicians are increasingly reporting debilitating, even life-threatening side effects, as well as substantive muscle loss and a decrease in efficacy (tolerance) with continued use. Most importantly, GLP1 RAs fail to restore a patients' metabolic health, meaning they are either forced to keep taking the medicine for life (if side effects are tolerated) or risk regaining the weight they lost, and then some, accompanied by additional health complications that diminish quality of life.
BioGene is committed to delivering the future of genetic medicine, aimed at restoring metabolic functions with reduced side effects, complemented by increased compliance and broad patient accessibility.
Following 5+ years of successful multi-disciplinary research, substantive progress has been made towards development of a revolutionary patient-friendly, sustained release, nasal spray designed to halt overproduction of a key causative protein in both diabetes & obesity. Protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B), an enzyme present throughout the body has been identified by world leading experts as a key mechanism that drives metabolic dysfunction. In particular, research in preclinical models has shown that inhibition of PTP1B in the brain, can completely protect against obesity and insulin resistance, that drives type 2 diabetes development.
By decreasing the levels of PTP1B back down to physiological levels using our nose-to-brain nasal spray, fat metabolism pathways would be restored, and diabetes patients would have the option of a disease modifying treatment as opposed to just symptomatic management.
Moreover, chronic PTP1B over-production has been linked to a range other serious medical conditions including, but not limited to solid-state cancers, sleep apnea, Alzheimer's disease, and organ failure during sepsis, further consolidating the critical role of BioGene's therapeutic target in human health.