Rejuve Therapeutics
Revive, Renew, Prevent, Protect TM
Rejuve offers a breakthrough replacement to triple therapy, targeting 25% of the fastest-growing segment of the $12B US COPD therapeutic market.
Leveraging our innovative technology platform, we harness the power of peptides, protein domains, and antibodies to modulate extracellular signaling and rejuvenate healthy organ function. Our mission is to address critical unmet medical needs, alleviate patient suffering, and enhance patient quality of life.
Opportunity
20M Americans have COPD, the 3rd leading cause of death in the US and globally. No current treatments reverse the hallmark features of COPD. Even patients with mild COPD are on the strongest possible, triple-therapy drugs. The FDA has said, there is a “pressing need to develop new drugs for COPD, particularly ones that may affect disease progression, because currently available therapies are mostly for symptomatic treatment.”
Solution
Rejuve Therapeutics is answering this call with RT-001 to reverse airway obstruction, improve airway mucociliary clearance, and increase deep lung cell viability in COPD. RT-001 slows down, stops, and reverses the underlying mechanisms of COPD. The local delivery of a biologic addresses a large unmet need.
Competition
Unique among companies targeting COPD, Rejuve expects to alter the course and trajectory of the disease. Currently, there are no disease-modifying therapies for COPD. 14 of the last 15 FDA approved therapeutics have the same, old mechanisms of action (LABA, LAMA, or steroid). The mechanism of action of RT-001 is unique. Other near-term entrants to the market are either antibodies against inflammation or an anti-inflammatory/bronchodilation small molecule.
Founders
The founders have over 80 years of expertise in drug development and commercialization. The CEO was the 10th person and director of drug design at CuraGen ($100M IPO in 1998), the 3rd person and performed all the original engineering calculations at Ion Torrent Systems (sold to ThermoFisher for $2.3B in 2014), and is a former EIR from Khosla Ventures. The COO built 7 companies to date, with 2 recent exits and an IPO. The Chief of Manufacturing is the manager of quality and supply of external pharmaceutical manufacturing operations for clinical trials at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine and previously standardized $700M of J&J external spend. The medical advisor was the head of the $2B global R&D for Biogen. The strategic advisor ran United Healthcare’s $55M digital health experience for diabetes and also ran Boston Scientific’s $300M Global Men’s Health therapies portfolio.
Lung Rejuvenation
RT-001 reverses human COPD tissue death in deep lung and ciliated tissue and restores cilia function.
Anti-Aging
RT-001 (CSP7) restores healthy telomere length in mice and restores Muc5ac & CAV-1 in human COPD tissue.
Cellular Reprogramming
RT-001 normalizes death and survival pathways in human COPD deep lung cells.
Pipeline
RT-001 itself has passed a Phase 1a safety trial, and Rejuve’s platform has identified a pipeline of programs at the preclinical stage that could 10x the COPD market.
