This Little-Known $12 Billion SoCal Startup Wants to Cure Baldness and Smooth Out Your Wrinkles
April 3, 2017
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
SAN DIEGO – Little-known Samumed, a biotech startup with the goal of developing regenerative technology for hair loss, smoothing wrinkles and cartilage treatments for osteoporosis, has achieved a valuation that’s the highest of any privately-held biotech company, $12 billion, Business Insider reported.
Samumed, which was founded in 2008, has a wide-ranging pipeline. The company is developing treatments for multiple disease areas, including five clinical-stage therapies. Treatments are aimed at osteoporosis, androgenetic alopecia, colorectal cancer therapies, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and degenerative disc disease. Samumed is also conducting preclinical work in the areas of psoriasis, Alzheimer’s disease, tendonitis, dry age-related macular degeneration and hepatic fibrosis. The company has hopes of developing therapies in 10 different disease areas by the end of the year.
However, Business Insider noted that the company is also shrouded in secrecy when it comes to its investors, which harkens to many of the concerns raised and investigated about the now embattled Theranos. But, unlike the beleaguered Palo Alto-based Theranos, Samumed has been open about sharing its research data, something that Theranos has resisted.
Samumed believes in targeting the root cause of a disease, rather than settling for “symptom relief.” The company’s approach uses progenitor cells, which, according to its website, “repair and replenish the various tissues in adult organisms.” Progenitor cells, as described by the Boston Children’s Hospital website, can differentiate to form one or more kinds of cells. The company is focused on the Wnt pathway, which plays a “crucial role in tissue health, ranging from formation to replenishment and from repair to regeneration of various tissues,” the company said on its website. The focus of Samumed's technology platform is on the ability to modulate the Wnt pathway in select tissues with small molecules.
“The ability to modulate the Wnt pathway, and thereby recover and restore the health of diseased tissues, presents significant opportunities in regenerative therapeutic,” the company said in a statement.
In an interview with Business Insider, Osman Kibar, Samumed’s chief executive officer, said that as people age, the Wnt levels “get out of balance.” He said if the Wnt activity levels do not increase to a point where the body is not making enough bone, which can lead to a person developing osteoporosis. By focusing on the Wnt pathway, Samumed’s progenitor cells can then be used to prevent the diseases.
Earlier this month, the company presented data on its investigational novel small molecule compound SM04554 that is aimed at preventing the onset of follicular neogenesis. Phase II data showed both treatment groups in the study exhibited statistically significantly higher total follicle counts compared to placebo, the company said. The 49 patients who participated in the trial received a once-daily therapy for 90 days. The patients underwent a scalp biopsy to assess the safety and efficacy of two different concentration, .15 percent and .25 percent, of SM04554 versus placebo. In the ITT analysis, both treatment groups exhibited significantly higher total follicle counts compared to placebo, the company said.
While the data looks promising, Shahin Rafii, a professor of genetic medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College told Business Insider, there are questions about how long the regenerated hair growth effect will last in patients.