Allied Minds announces the launch of Novare Pharmaceuticals, a biotech company focused on developing therapeutics that modulate RHAMM

Allied Minds (LSE: ALM), an innovative U.S. science and technology development and commercialization company, announced today the launch of Novare Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company focused on developing therapeutic products that help the body replenish and rebuild itself using its own tissue through the modulation of RHAMM. Modulation of RHAMM is also of benefit in inflammatory diseases such as Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD).

Novare is an expansion of the Allied Minds subsidiary previously called ProGDerm, which is developing a dermal filler for aesthetic applications that works via the modulation of the Receptor for Hyaluronan Mediated Motility, or RHAMM. This research is being led by Dr. Eva Turley, an oncology scientist at the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) in London, Ontario, in collaboration with MJ Bissell, a world-renowned cell biologist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories in Berkeley, California. Turley and colleagues have now uncovered the potential for additional applications of RHAMM modulation that may help solve some of today’s biggest medical challenges, including arthritis, fibrotic diseases such as Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD) in premature infants and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF), and the reduction and possible elimination of keloid scars.

This breakthrough in tissue engineering may also provide an opportunity to regenerate and reconstruct women’s breasts after a mastectomy through the localized stimulation of the body’s own adipocyte (fat) stem cells. Novare has licensed from LHSC additional RHAMM compounds discovered by Dr. Turley, who is also serving as Novare’s Chief Scientist, and Dr. Leonard Luyt, a peptide chemist at LHSC, allowing the company to more than double its library of RHAMM-binding peptides – and increase potential applications.

“We are excited by the opportunity to further explore the potential therapeutic applications of RHAMM modulation technologies as the studies conducted to date show promising, medically relevant, drug-induced biological responses,” said Michael Delmage, Chief Executive Officer of Novare.

RHAMM is a protein that is normally localized inside the cell but is released by certain stimuli. It plays a role in the regulation of spontaneous cell movement and stem cell differentiation. Dr. Turley and her colleagues found that modulating RHAMM provides the safest and most efficacious means to selectively promote subcutaneous fat generation (adipogenesis), moderate destructive inflammation, and reduce scarring (fibrosis) by stimulating normal cell differentiation and controlling the body’s own natural regenerative processes.

More information about Novare and its research can be found on its website, www.novarepharma.com. Novare is a subsidiary of Boston-based Allied Minds.