Nov 28 2008
RCP Therapeutics, a biopharmaceuticals company specialising in the converging nanotechnology and regenerative medical markets, today announces the appointment of Professor Volkmar Weissig to the Company's Scientific Advisory Board.
Volkmar Weissig is Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Midwestern University College of Pharmacy, Glendale, Arizona, whilst previously serving as Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutics at Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts. In particular, the presence of Professor Weissig enhances RCP Therapeutics' scientific expertise in the field of nano-carrier assisted sub-cellular targeting and mitochondrial nanomedicine.
RCP Therapeutics has a lead therapeutic candidate that targets the mitochondria of cancer cells to evade multi-drug resistance and this forms a core element of the company's research and development programme.
The Company's pioneering technology also treats injuries resulting from stroke ischemia and reperfusion injury, which is expected to begin clinical trials in 2009. Furthermore, RCP Therapeutics has identified and performed early stage trials using a p53 nanoparticle to treat the effects of restenosis following angioplasty. The Company aggregates intellectual property, performs early stage proof of concept in pre-clinical and clinical trials and seeks to penetrate markets, and drives revenues through collaborative partnership with pharmaceutical companies in later stage clinical studies.
To date, RCP Therapeutics has identified a series of product candidates and pilot launched first product, Bimene, a novel nano-cosmeceutical skincare product, utilising its nanoparticle delivery platform acquired via licenses from universities and US based research institutions. Commenting on the appointment, Robert Sexauer: CEO of RCP Therapeutics expressed: "We are very pleased that Professor Weissig is joining our Scientific Advisory Board, especially as he is recognised as one of the pre-eminent scientists in the realm of sub-cellular targeting and mitochondrial nanomedicine. Indeed, our company is driving innovations in this field. Professor Weissig has been recently interviewed by MIT Technology Review to discuss our licensed technology that was demonstrated to be more effective in treating cancers than existing alternatives by virtue of the fact that reformulated anti-cancer chemotherapy with mitochondrial subcellular targeting ligand is able to bypass or evade cancer multi-drug resistance mechanisms and instruct cancer cells to commit suicide. This is a novel cancer targeting strategy that was shown to be more effective and made those regular anti-cancer chemotherapies much less toxic than the non-targeting strategy. We plan to further develop our technologies, take our products through clinical trials and ultimately bring them to market – so delivering a real breakthrough in cancer drug treatment. Professor Weissig will be part of that critical process."