Our Innovation Analysts recently looked into emerging technologies and up-and-coming startups working on solutions for the pharma sector. As there are a lot of startups working on various different applications, we want to share our insights with you. This time, we take a look at 5 promising biopharmaceutical startups.
Heat Map: 5 Top Biopharmaceutical Startups
Using our StartUs Insights Platform, covering 1.116.000+ startups & emerging companies, we looked at innovation in the field of biopharmaceuticals. For this research, we identified 575 relevant solutions and picked 5 to showcase below. These companies were chosen based on a data-driven startup scouting approach, taking into account factors such as location, founding year, and technology among others. Depending on your specific criteria, the top picks might look entirely different.
The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights 5 startups & emerging companies developing innovative biopharmaceutical solutions. Moreover, the Heat Map reveals regions that observe a high startup activity and illustrates the geographic distribution of all 575 companies we analyzed for this specific topic.
NeuroScientific Biopharmaceuticals – Peptide-Based Pharmaceuticals
Biopharmaceuticals represent a wide range of therapeutic and diagnostic products produced in living systems. Peptide-based pharmaceuticals are a popular class of biopharmaceuticals because of the high safety, selectivity, and efficacy of peptides. Peptide-based solutions often improve upon naturally occurring peptides to offer novel therapeutics for many underserved diseases.
NeuroScientific Biopharmaceuticals is an Australian company that offers novel peptide-based pharmaceuticals. EmtinB mimics the neuroprotective and neuroregenerative properties of Metallothionein-II, a naturally occurring protein. The drug binds to surface-based cell receptors to activate intracellular pathways that modulate neuroinflammation. It has shown promise for the treatment of Alzheimer’s and neurodegenerative dementia in preclinical trials.
CellmAbs – Antibody-Based Therapy
Cancer treatments often affect normal tissues too, leading to undesirable side-effects. However, antibody-based therapy offers precise treatment of different cancers. It involves the identification of tumor biomarkers that are expressed only by cancerous cells. Monoclonal antibodies bind to these biomarkers and act selectively on tumor cells.
Portugal-based startup CellmAbs develops antibody-based therapy for cancer treatment. The company’s solutions specifically target glycans or sugar molecules present on the surface of cancer cells. This reduces cancer growth and induces an immune response that further destroys the cancer cells. The startup’s pipeline includes multiple candidates in the early investigation stages for a wide range of cancers.
Rheos Medicines – Immunomodulation
Dysregulation in immune metabolism causes many autoimmune diseases and cancers. Since immune functions are tightly linked with metabolism, interventions in metabolic pathways are promising therapeutic solutions. Once key biomarkers are identified, biopharmaceuticals that modulate their function reverse the dysregulation and the disease state.
Rheos Medicines is a US-based startup that develops biopharmaceuticals for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Its product engine uses bioinformatics and multi-omics datasets to create immunometabolism network maps (imMAPS). This enables the identification of novel pathogenic mechanisms in patients with severe autoimmune diseases and cancer. The startup’s pipeline includes drugs for lupus, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the early stages of development.
Avicanna – Cannabinoids
As regulations on cannabis use ease across countries, medical cannabis solutions are on the rise. The pharma industry is now taking note of its medicinal potential. Startups and companies are investigating cannabinoids, the psychoactive compounds in cannabis, for potential treatments. These include both phytotherapy and growing cannabinoids in microbes.
Canada-based company Avicanna provides advanced natural cannabinoid solutions. With its RHO Phyto brand, Avicanna develops phytotherapy from pharmaceutical-grade cannabinoids. The startup’s pipeline includes biopharmaceuticals for epidermolysis bullosa (EB), neuropathic pain, and eczema. Avicanna also offers clinically approved cosmetics for eczema-prone and acne-prone skin as well as gingivitis via its Pura Earth brand.
AptaTargets – Aptamers
Nucleic acid aptamers are short, single-stranded nucleic acid segments that possess the ability to bind to a particular target. Due to their three dimensional conformation, aptamers have high affinity, selectivity, and biological action. These offer several advantages compared to antibodies, including smaller size, higher flexibility, and lack of immunogenicity.
AptaTargets is a Spanish startup that develops therapeutic biopharmaceuticals based on aptamer technology. ApTOLL is a first-in-class aptamer that targets toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4). The aptamer’s action on the receptor prevents an inflammatory cascade that usually occurs after stroke onset. It considerably reduces brain damage and increases the effective time-window after a stroke. Other than its role in acute ischemic stroke, ApTOLL is also being investigated for the treatment of intracerebral hemorrhage, myocardial infarction, and multiple sclerosis.
What About The Other 570 Solutions?
While we believe data is key to creating insights it can be easy to be overwhelmed by it. Our ambition is to create a comprehensive overview and provide actionable innovation intelligence so you can achieve your goals faster. The 5 biopharmaceutical startups showcased above are promising examples out of 575 we analyzed for this article. To identify the most relevant solutions based on your specific criteria, get in touch.
