ZWI Therapeutics – a biotechnology company focused on the development of protein therapeutics using proprietary new polymers – announced a Series A financing, the appointment of pharmaceutical industry veterans Drs. Larry Miller and Ron Cohen as Independent Directors to the company’s Board of Directors, and Dr. Ed Mascioli as CEO and Board Director.
ZWI created new polymers based on polycarboxybetaine, with several advantages over polyethylene glycol (PEG), including reduced immunogenicity and preserved pharmacokinetics, and can be used on many protein therapeutics, lipid nanoparticles, and hydrogels. These novel polymers are supported by dozens of issued and pending patents and over 300 publications.
ZWI’s lead program ZWI-001 (uricase-polycarboxybetaine conjugate) has demonstrated preclinical proof of concept and is currently in development to treat hyperuricemia in severe gout. And ZWI has gained meaningful guidance on CMC, non-clinical, and clinical plans from the FDA via an INTERACT meeting and is progressing toward filing an IND.
KEY QUOTES:
“After closing our Series A $10 million financing from Co-win Ventures and Sherpa Healthcare Partners, engaging such high caliber executives in our company is a testimony to the confidence successful entrepreneurs see in the ZWI technology. Ed Mascioli’s significant experience leading multiple biotech companies is important in our company’s growth.”
— Dr. Shaoyi Jiang, the Robert Langer ’70 Family and Friends Professor at Cornell University, ZWI Board member, and co-founder
“As board members, Ron and Larry collectively bring decades of successful pharmaceutical industry experience to ZWI. We will utilize their extensive expertise as ZWI advances its pipeline of wholly-owned and differentiated candidates that aim to tackle immunogenicity of protein therapeutics – a major challenge in biologics development.”
— Dr. Mascioli
