Verseon International Corporation is a clinical-stage
pharmaceutical
Medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal product, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy ( pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the ...
company based in Fremont, California. It is developing several drug discovery programs in cardiometabolic diseases and cancer featuring drug candidates that represent novel chemical matter designed using molecular physics and artificial intelligence.
History
Verseon was founded in 2002 by Adityo Prakash, Eniko Fodor, and David Kita, who created the company's proprietary physics-based computational drug discovery platform.
Through two early rounds of private funding, Verseon raised $34.5 million from high-profile investors including John Leonard, President and Chief Executive Officer of Intellia Therapeutics and former Chief Scientific Officer of
AbbVie Inc
AbbVie Inc. is an American pharmaceutical company headquartered in North Chicago, Illinois. It is ranked sixth on the list of largest biomedical companies by revenue. In 2023, the company's seat in Forbes Global 2000 was 74, and rank 89 on the 2 ...
and Robert Karr former Senior Vice President of R&D Strategy at
Pfizer
Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered at The Spiral (New York City), The Spiral in Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 184 ...
.
In 2015, Verseon completed a $100.5 million (£68.5 million) stock exchange listing on the London
Alternative Investment Market
AIM (formerly the Alternative Investment Market) is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange that was launched on 19 June 1995 as a replacement to the previous Unlisted Securities Market, Unlisted Securities Market (USM) that had been in opera ...
(AIM), with backing from several major UK investors. In December 2019, after obtaining stockholder approval, Verseon returned to private ownership.
Prominent members of Verseon's scientific advisory board include
Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
The Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) is the engineering school within Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, offering degrees in engineering and applied sciences to graduate students admitted ...
.
Drug discovery platform
Verseon's drug discovery platform generates virtual, novel, synthesizable drug-like compounds, models their interactions with proteins of interest to identify promising drug candidates, and then advances those candidates through synthesis and testing. The candidates are further optimized using AI to yield clinical candidates with requisite characteristics. This kind of physics-based molecular modeling platform could be a new way for the pharmaceutical industry to discover drugs. ''Nano Magazine'' noted the platform has produced “multiple chemically diverse clinical candidates…unlikely to be found through any other method” for every one of its drug programs. Currently, most drugs are discovered using the
high-throughput screening
High-throughput screening (HTS) is a method for scientific discovery especially used in drug discovery and relevant to the fields of biology, materials science and chemistry. Using robotics, data processing/control software, liquid handling device ...
method.
Drug pipeline
As of November 2021, Verseon's pipeline includes 14 drugs in 7 programs in the areas of
cardiovascular disease
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is any disease involving the heart or blood vessels. CVDs constitute a class of diseases that includes: coronary artery diseases (e.g. angina, heart attack), heart failure, hypertensive heart disease, rheumati ...
,
diabetes
Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...
,
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...
, and
liver disease
Liver disease, or hepatic disease, is any of many diseases of the liver. If long-lasting it is termed chronic liver disease. Although the diseases differ in detail, liver diseases often have features in common.
Liver diseases
File:Ground gla ...
.
The company's first cardiovascular disease (CVD) drug candidate is nearing completion of Phase 1 clinical trials. The stated goal of the CVD program is to produce anticoagulants safe for long-term use without the heightened risk of uncontrolled bleeding posed by other anticoagulant drugs. Preclinical tests have found that Verseon's novel anticoagulant compounds prevent
thrombosis
Thrombosis () is the formation of a Thrombus, blood clot inside a blood vessel, obstructing the flow of blood through the circulatory system. When a blood vessel (a vein or an artery) is injured, the body uses platelets (thrombocytes) and fib ...
while preserving
platelet
Platelets or thrombocytes () are a part of blood whose function (along with the coagulation#Coagulation factors, coagulation factors) is to react to bleeding from blood vessel injury by clumping to form a thrombus, blood clot. Platelets have no ...
function, meaning they are associated with significantly lower bleeding times than other currently approved anticoagulants
dabigatran
Dabigatran, sold under the brand name Pradaxa among others, is an anticoagulant used to treat and prevent blood clots and to prevent stroke in people with atrial fibrillation. It is commonly used to prevent blood clots following hip or kn ...
,
argatroban
Argatroban is an anticoagulant that is a small molecule direct thrombin inhibitor. In 2000, argatroban was licensed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for prophylaxis or treatment of thrombosis in people with heparin-induced thrombocyt ...
or
apixaban
Apixaban, sold under the brand name Eliquis, is an anticoagulant medication used to treat and prevent blood clots and to prevent stroke in people with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation through directly inhibiting factor Xa. It is used as an al ...
.
In August 2021 the company announced that its oral prophylactic treatments for vision loss related to
diabetic retinopathy
Diabetic retinopathy (also known as diabetic eye disease) is a medical condition in which damage occurs to the retina due to diabetes. It is a leading cause of blindness in developed countries and one of the lead causes of sight loss in the wor ...
, a condition affecting roughly one third of all diabetics, are close to starting Phase 1 clinical trials. This program explores viable alternatives to regular injections into the eyes of diabetic patients.
Its three oncology programs focus on novel chemotherapy agents for multidrug-resistant cancers, cancers that express
CD73
5′-nucleotidase (5′-NT), also known as ecto-5′-nucleotidase or CD73 (cluster of differentiation 73), is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ''NT5E'' gene. CD73 commonly serves to convert Adenosine monophosphate, AMP to adenosine.
F ...
(a cell-surface protein that locally suppresses immune response to tumors), and treatments for aggressive metastatic cancers.
Verseon is also conducting a program for the treatment of
hereditary angioedema
Hereditary angioedema (HAE) is a disorder that results in recurrent attacks of severe swelling. The swelling most commonly affects the arms, legs, face, intestinal tract, and airway. If the intestinal tract is affected, abdominal pain and vo ...
,{{cite news , title=Verseon Developing Oral Treatment for HAE , url=https://haei.org/verseon-developing-oral-treatment-for-hae , publisher=HAEi News , date=2017-09-28 a rare genetic disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of severe swelling in areas such as the limbs, face, intestinal tract, or airways.