Health insurance fund Australian Unity has led a $23 million first capital raising round for a university spin-out developing a potentially life-saving drug derived from deadly spider venom.
Australian Unity has invested in Infensa Bioscience from its Future of Healthcare Fund. The capital raise has also been supported by high net-worth individual investors.
Future of Healthcare portfolio manager Victor Windeyer said: “Each year nearly 60,000 Australians suffer a heart attack. While the vast majority of victims survive, all heart attacks cause permanent organ damage as irreplaceable cells die. For decades, reducing this cell death and salvaging viable cells after a heart attack has been a high priority goal which has proved stubbornly resistant to innovation.
“Infensa’s lead candidate uses a molecule found in the venom of a K’gari (Fraser Island) funnel-web spider, which has been found to block signals that cause heart cells to die during a heart attack, preventing irreversible damage. It’s remarkable that a new drug derived from the venom of one of Australia’s deadliest creatures could offer a breakthrough to prevent and reduce this cell death.”
The discovery was made by a team led by Associate Professor Nathan Palpant and Professor Glenn King, an expert on venom-derived peptides, from the University of Queensland’s Institute of Molecular Bioscience and cardiologist Peter Macdonald from the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in Sydney.
The venom of the genetically isolated K’gari funnel-web is made up of as many as 3,000 different molecules. The team discovered that one of these could block the cell death message after a heart attack or a stroke. The discovery attracted worldwide attention when it was published in Circulation, the world’s top ranked cardio-vascular journal last year.
Professor Palpant and Professor King sought advice on commercialising the discovery from University of Queensland Associate Professor Mark Smythe who founded Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ: PTGX) in 2001. Professor Smythe said he quickly recognised the potential of the discovery and agreed to take on the role of chief executive of the commercialisation vehicle.
Infensa has licensed its drug candidate, IB001, from the University of Queensland’s commercialisation arm UniQuest and hopes to enter phase one trials by late 2023.
Image: Professor Glenn King with the K’gari funnel-web spider.