National Post (National Edition)
DEMOCRACY IN MEDICINE
Preveceutical strives to create low-cost therapies to target the biggest global health problems
The pharmaceutical industry continues to produce a breathtaking array of breakthrough medications. However, some niche medications are proving so expensive that few patients could afford them. Canada’s Patented Medicine Prices Review Board notes that eight of the top 10 specialty drugs with the highest annual drug cost per active beneficiary carry a price tag of more than $100,000 per year.
Stephen Van Deventer, chairman, CEO and president of Preveceutical Medical Inc. (“Preveceutical”) (CSE: PREV) (OTCQB: PRVCF) (FSE: 18H) is deliberately taking his company in another direction using organic and nature-identical products.
“We’re focused on creating affordable medications and drug delivery systems to create better outcomes for consumers,” he says. “We’re looking to create therapies that will be less costly, more efficient and less invasive. At the same time, we’re working to create significant intellectual property (IP) for investors.”
Preveceutical is currently engaged in five research and development programs. Four are being developed with the University of Queensland’s Pharmacy Australia Centre of Excellence (PACE). These include the Sol-gel program offering a time-released nasal spray, designed to maximize the therapeutic effects of medications, non-addictive analgesic peptides to replace highly addictive opioid pain relievers, dual gene therapies targeting type 2 diabetes and obesity, and nature-identical peptides for treatment of various ailments. A fifth project, a therapeutic product intended to treat athletes who suffer from concussions (mild traumatic brain injury), is being developed as a joint venture with Sports 1 Marketing.
“When we’ve developed proof-of-concept on any of these projects, we intend to partner with other companies who will fund clinical trials,” says Van Deventer.
Preveceutical has assembled a strong team to shepherd product development. It includes chief science officer Dr. Makarand Jawadekar, who has 28 years of experience in research and development with Pfizer Inc. and was a part of the team that brought drugs including Zoloft and Viagra to market. Also on board is chief research officer Dr. Harry Parekh, who heads the drug/ gene delivery group at the University of Queensland’s PACE.
PACE isn’t simply offering research-for-hire — its participation involves retaining a heathy share of product IP. While Preveceutical brings extensive experience in product development to the table, PACE offers partnership with Uniquest, the university’s commercialization company.
Parekh’s research precedes the founding of Preveceutical. It includes the Sol-gel medication delivery platform, as well as the linker technology that stabilizes molecules to transform them into therapeutic candidates. Both technologies are being licensed to Preveceutical.
“I’ve been courted by a number of entities to work on research projects in relation to my platforms, and it’s fair to say that big pharma is not a good match for me,” says Parekh. “After meeting with Stephen and [director] Kim [Van Deventer] I realized that they understood my mission to translate technologies to medications in a moral and ethical fashion, with the goal of drastically reducing costs for end users. However, underpinning this research is the fundamental necessity of developing exploitable IP.”
Sol-gel stands for “soluble gel” — a liquid transformed into a gel. The IP lies in the ability to suspend molecules, even those considered insoluble in water, inside a gel. That would allow a broad range of pharmaceutical projects to be suspended in nasal sprays.
“The challenge is creating a product that remains as a gel inside the nasal cavity,” says Parekh. “The platform allows water insoluble molecules such as steroids to be suspended in a nonirritating, alcohol-free and sustained-release delivery system to make those products available to the patient over a long period of time.”
Preveceutical is concentrating on using Sol-gel to deliver cannabidiols (CBD), the non-psychoactive compounds found in cannabis plants. The company is currently looking at various prototype spray devices from a globally recognized, innovative drug delivery device manufacturer.
“Our aim is to investigate the potential for CBD to affect conditions, including pain, inflammation, seizures, and neurological disorders,” says Van Deventer. “Using Sol-gel, we hope to deliver CBD in a way that may overcome stigma surrounding use of these products.”
Preveceutical’s research into non-addictive analgesic peptides is looking to address the massive problem of opioid addiction. The Public Health Agency of Canada estimates at least 2,923 apparent opioid-related deaths occurred in the first nine months of 2017 — almost as many as died in all of 2016.
The research is looking to isolate the peptides produced by the human body to fight pain and employ them to provide non-addictive pain relief.
“Local release of these peptides blocks pain signals in humans,” says Parekh. “The challenge with these peptides is that they’re effective only for a short period of time following an injury.”
Using Parekh’s linker technology, the amino acids in the relevant peptide chains are being altered with the intention of providing longevity while retaining analgesic effects.
“The body does not induce tolerance or addiction to the pain-killing molecules it produces,” says Parekh. “The research is about taking the body’s own painkilling molecules and transforming them into drugs.”
Parekh has also been collaborating with researchers over the past five years on dual gene therapies, targeting proteins linked to type 2 diabetes and obesity. The potential is enormous: diabetes of all types affects more than 44 million people in North America and the Caribbean alone.
“Much of the research into dual-gene therapies involves using viruses to deliver the payloads to target cells, at a cost of up to $1 million per treatment,” says Parekh. “We’re developing IP using short interfering RNA (SIRNA) to deliver precision payloads to cells at much lower cost. For Preveceutical, these messengers are being tasked with silencing the RNA of specific proteins to reduce the capacity of cells to store fat and respond to the negative effects of insulin.”
Parekh is also investigating the creation of natureidentical peptides for potential treatment of other ailments. He’s working with venom derived from the blue scorpion, with the intention of isolating peptides that may be effective in regulating and preventing the progress of certain cancers. Parekh’s linker technology has the potential to create IP by altering these peptide chains to create patentable compounds.
“Blue scorpion venom is one of the world’s most expensive substances, at $39 million per gallon,” says Van Deventer. “If we can create nature-identical molecules that demonstrate clinical effectiveness we can replicate and mass-produce them at much lower cost.”
Preveceutical and PACE continue to drive forward in a quest to create affordable and patentable therapies that target some of the world’s most significant health crises. However, for Parekh, the research is also personal.
“Each of these research programs has the potential to develop therapies that target conditions affecting someone close to me — friends, family, and even my own son,” says Parekh. “There’s no greater motivator to achieve success than that.”