Altamira Therapeutics Provides Update on RNA Therapeutics Program
- Covadonga Pañeda, Ph.D., to join leadership team as Chief Development Officer for RNA therapeutics
- Receipt of NIH grant to help advance siRNA delivery platform for use in extrahepatic inflammatory disorders
HAMILTON, BERMUDA / ACCESSWIRE / January 13, 2022 / Altamira Therapeutics Ltd. (NASDAQ:CYTO), a company dedicated to addressing unmet medical needs through RNA therapeutics, allergy and viral infection protection, and inner ear therapeutics, today provided a business update on its development activities in RNA therapeutics.
Growing the Leadership Team
As part of its ongoing repositioning around RNA therapeutics, the Company is expanding its leadership team with the appointment of Covadonga Pañeda, Ph.D. as Chief Development Officer (CDO), effective early April 2022.
Dr. Pañeda's mandate will be overseeing and advancing the further development of Altamira's delivery platforms for extrahepatic nucleotide delivery. She brings rich experience to the Company, acquired since 2008 through various roles with pharmaceutical companies, contract research organizations and in the venture capital sector in Europe. Most recently, she served as Director of Development at Limm Therapeutics, a neuroimmune biopharmaceutical company. Previously, she spent seven years as R&D Manager at Sylentis S.A., a clinical stage RNAi biopharmaceuticals company. Dr. Pañeda obtained a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Faculty of Medicine at Universidad Autónoma, Madrid, Spain, and spent several years as a Post-doc at the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA. She holds a Master of Management of Biotechnology Companies from the Fundación Genoma España, Madrid, Spain.
"We are very pleased to grow our leadership team with the hiring of Dr Pañeda as Chief Development Officer," commented Thomas Meyer, Altamira Therapeutics' founder, Chairman and CEO. "Together with our Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Samuel Wickline, and a growing development team, she will be instrumental in driving the further progress of our OligoPhore and SemaPhore platforms for extrahepatic delivery of siRNA, mRNA or other nucleotides. We look forward to exciting progress in our RNA therapeutics business in 2022 and the years to come."
Award of NIH Grant to Support Extrahepatic RNA Delivery in Inflammatory Disorders
The Company's U.S. subsidiary, Altamira Therapeutics Inc., was recently awarded a Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to help address the lack of effective systemic delivery technologies for RNA structures that might target diseases occurring beyond the liver. The project, titled "A Peptide-Based Polyplex Platform for Nucleotides Delivery to the Sites of Inflammation," will help to move the Company's OligoPhore™ delivery platform towards clinical stage evaluations in inflammatory disorders by demonstrating safety and effectiveness in a mouse model of rheumatoid arthritis and optimizing a commercially scalable formulation process. The project will be carried out with an academic research partner.
About OligoPhore™ and SemaPhore™
Altamira Therapeutics is developing OligoPhore™ / SemaPhore™ as a versatile platform for safe and effective delivery of nucleic acid payloads such as siRNA (small interfering ribonucleic acid), mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) into target cells, using systemic or local administration. It is based on a proprietary 21 amino acid peptide that can engage any type of RNA in rapid self-assembly into a polyplex. The polyplex has a size, charge, and other physical features that allow it to escape hepatic clearance and thus to reach other target tissues than the liver. OligoPhoreTM and SemaPhore™ protect the RNA payload from degradation in the circulation and allow for rapid cellular uptake, while enabling pH-dependent nucleotide endosomal escape and cytoplasmic delivery. Effective delivery and positive treatment outcomes have been demonstrated in more than 10 murine models of disease for targets in the NF-κB family, various members of the ETS transcription factor family, and targets in the JNK and TAM pathways.
About Altamira Therapeutics
Altamira Therapeutics is dedicated to developing therapeutics that address important unmet medical needs. The Company is currently active in three areas: the development of RNA therapeutics for extrahepatic therapeutic targets (OligoPhore™ / SemaPhore™ platforms; preclinical), nasal sprays for protection against airborne viruses and allergens (Bentrio™; commercial) or the treatment of vertigo (AM-125; Phase 2), and the development of therapeutics for intratympanic treatment of tinnitus or hearing loss (Keyzilen® and Sonsuvi®, Phase 3). The Company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda with its main operations in Basel, Switzerland. The shares of Altamira Therapeutics Ltd. trade on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the symbol "CYTO."
Forward-looking Statements
This press release may contain statements that constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements are statements other than historical facts and may include statements that address future operating, financial or business performance or Altamira Therapeutics' strategies or expectations. In some cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as "may", "might", "will", "should", "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "estimates", "predicts", "projects", "potential", "outlook" or "continue", or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, developments and business decisions to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the approval and timing of commercialization of AM-301, Altamira Therapeutics' need for and ability to raise substantial additional funding to continue the development of its product candidates, the timing and conduct of clinical trials of Altamira Therapeutics' product candidates, the clinical utility of Altamira Therapeutics' product candidates, the timing or likelihood of regulatory filings and approvals, Altamira Therapeutics' intellectual property position and Altamira Therapeutics' financial position, including the impact of any future acquisitions, dispositions, partnerships, license transactions or changes to Altamira Therapeutics' capital structure, including future securities offerings. These risks and uncertainties also include, but are not limited to, those described under the caption "Risk Factors" in Altamira Therapeutics' Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2020, and in Altamira Therapeutics' other filings with the SEC, which are available free of charge on the Securities Exchange Commission's website at: www.sec.gov. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those indicated. All forward-looking statements and all subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to Altamira Therapeutics or to persons acting on behalf of Altamira Therapeutics are expressly qualified in their entirety by reference to these risks and uncertainties. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and Altamira Therapeutics does not undertake any obligation to update them in light of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable law.
Investor contact:
Stephen Kilmer
(647) 872-4849
[email protected]
SOURCE: Altamira Therapeutics Ltd.
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