Starwise Therapeutics Llc

COMPANY OVERVIEW: StarWise Therapeutics LLC (STW) is a lead-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of pharmaceuticals for the treatment of neurological rare diseases like Charcot Marie Tooth (CMT), Rett Syndrome, Fragile X syndrome, colits, and rheumatoid arthritis. At the start, STW will focus entirely on CMT in order to rapidly move to clinical trials as this is considered a more tractable target. SWT’s technology platform is based on discoveries made by the founder and CEO, Dr. Kozikowski on the design and development of selective inhibitors of the Histone Deacetylase Isozyme 6 (HDAC6) along with key scientific efforts of the company’s senior biology collaborator Dr. Brett Langley formerly of the Burke Cornell Institute, and now working at the University of Waikato in NZ. STW’s objective is to build a profitable biopharmaceutical company by advancing the current lead compound into human clinical trials by the end of 2020. The development team comprised of Drs. Kozikowski and Langley brings more than 50 years of drug development experience to STW. Moreover, the company envisions applications of its technology in other areas such as Rett Syndrome and immunology, and Drs. Eubanks and Hancock are also key members of the StarWise scientific team. Lastly, brain penetrant variants of these HDAC6 inhibitors have been shown efficacy in tau animal models of Alzheimer's disease, and as such the company plans to expand its efforts to the treatment of various tauopathies in collaboration with Drs. David Morgan and Marcia Gordon of the University of South Florida. Lastly, key biochemical data and x-ray structural analysis are being provided by our collaborator and SAB member Dr. Cyril Bařinka from the Institute of Biotechnology of the Czech Republic.