The discovery of immunosuppressive (anti-rejection) drugs has made possible life-saving organ transplantation procedures. While these drugs prevent or delay organ rejection, transplanted organs often ultimately fail, and about 40% survive for no more than 5 years1. Furthermore, immune suppression leads to significant undesirable side effects such as increased susceptibility to life-threatening infections and cancers because it is not specifically targeted towards the transplanted organs; rather, it indiscriminately and broadly suppresses immune function throughout the body. We are a biotechnology company developing a novel nucleic acid-based technology to selectively suppress immune cells involved in the rejection of transplanted tissues and organs. We have an exclusive worldwide license for commercializing a nucleic acid-based technology named Apoptotic DNA Immunotherapy™ (ADi™) which utilizes a novel approach that mimics the way our bodies naturally induce tolerance to our own tissues. While immune suppression requires continuous administration to prevent rejection of a transplanted organ, induction of tolerance has the potential to retrain the immune system to accept the organ for longer periods of time. Thus, ADi™ may allow patients to live with transplanted organs with significantly reduced dependence on immune suppression. ADi™ is a technology platform which we believe can be engineered to address a wide variety of indications. We are initially focusing on skin allotransplantation, a setting in which ADi™ treatment has demonstrated significantly improved survival of transplanted skin grafts in animal models.
