As the human race continues to grow, evolve, and develop, there are many paradigm shifts that we experience with advancing times. With the senior population’s neurodegenerative diseases growing in number, it has become essential to understand the need of the hour and combat these diseases in a given time.
A visionary personality, Dr. Maria Maccecchini is the Founder, President, CEO, and Executive Board Member of Annovis Bio.
From a young age, Maria was always intrigued by the brain. She felt the brain was a real black box, but it was what forms human beings. Without a brain, one wouldn’t exist. Hence, she discovered her passion to develop better therapeutics for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other neurodegenerative diseases and founded Annovis in May 2008.
Maria’s Early Days
Maria completed her Ph.D. in biochemistry at the Biocenter of Basel, Switerzland with a two-year visiting fellowship at Rockefeller University.
Later, she did one postdoc at Caltech and one at the Roche Institute of Immunology. Then she joined large Pharma as Head of Molecular Biology at Mallinckrodt and also worked at small Pharma as General Manager of Bachem Bioscience, the US subsidiary of Bachem AG, Switzerland.
Eventually, she also started her company- Symphony Pharmaceutical – a biotech company, which was sold to Transgenomic in 2001. She was a partner and a director of two angel groups, Robin Hood Ventures, and MidAtlantic Angel Group.
After successfully serving and managing key positions, she then founded her present second company Annovis Bio.
More about Annovis Bio
Annovis Bio was founded in 2008 and is based in Berwyn, Pennsylvania. The company is developing therapies to treat neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and Parkinson’s disease (PD). Its current lead candidate- buntanetap inhibits neurotoxic proteins that underlie major neurodegenerative mechanisms including axonal transport disruption, inflammation, and cell death.
The ability to target several proteins simultaneously allowed buntanetap to advance to Phase 3 for Parkinson’s where it shows motor function improvement and to Phase 2/3 for Alzheimer’s disease with significant improvements in cognition.
Establishing a Robust Foundation
Maria always wanted to protect nerve cells from dying and, while she had moved from pure biochemistry to biochemistry of the brain, she was not developing drugs to prevent nerve cells from dying. Therefore, in 1992, she founded Symphony Pharmaceuticals to protect nerve cells from a stroke.
Today there is still no drug on the market that protects nerve cells in stroke. She transformed the organization into a gene company and sold the business in 2001 as a genomics company. In 2008, she was introduced to a preliminary small molecule that was a translational inhibitor of neurotoxic aggregating proteins (or TINAPs). This small molecule therapeutic showed promise in Alzheimer’s disease.
After large reworks and changes in this compound, it developed what is now known as buntanetap. It found that buntanetap protects nerve cells from dying in many neurodegenerative diseases as well as in stroke.
Standing Strong in the Face of Pandemic
Annovis Bio conducted a 70-patient study in AD and PD with spinal fluid extraction at the height of the pandemic. While the study closed down for 3 months, the organization was able to continue with improved safety rules and regulations. It offered patients a limo with a Covid-tested driver. On top of everything, the study pretty much continued as planned after the first 3 months and it also completed recruiting in record time.
An Ambitious Future
Maria’s original goal of protecting the health of nerve cells is still her ultimate goal. If nerve cells remain healthy and alive, the functions associated with them remain intact.
Presently, the company has already enrolled 100 patients into the early PD study and is ready to start the AD study in December.
The Emerging Trends of the BioTech Industry
The cancer biotech industry has blossomed with Immuno Oncology. With regards to AD and PD, the industry is behind and requires a lot of work to produce drugs that change the course of neurodegenerative diseases. However, there are progressively more novel approaches to neurodegeneration that promise to help patients.
Maria is a big proponent of evaluating all innovative approaches because she firmly believes that, while some of them will fail, some of them will work.
The Challenging Times
Maria gives us a sneak peek and talks about the major challenges the company is tackling currently and aims to successfully overcome them with time.
She states, “The major challenges are growth and financial health. For 10 years, we were a small preclinical company and now we are in phase 3. We need new people with clinical expertise; they are not easy to find. Given that we are looking at filling additional positions and running a total of five clinical trials we need financing. We are working hard to achieve both.”
A Customer-Centric Driven Mission and Vision
Annovis Bio is a People Focused, Purpose Driven, Passion Powered organization.
With an aging population, neurodegenerative diseases have become one of the world’s largest unmet medical needs. The organization is developing a transformative therapy for Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, and other neurodegenerative disorders by inhibiting the production of not one, but multiple neurotoxic brain proteins, that have been shown to impair axonal transport and lead to nerve cell death. As a result, patients lose their function, independence, and dignity. At Annovis Bio, the team and staff aim to preserve the dignity of patients.
Keeping patients at the heart of everything, treating them with compassion and respect, and guiding them at every step of their journey, Annovis Bio becomes their go-to partner.
Serving a Bigger Purpose
“We are working to offer an aging population new hope in the fight against very debilitating diseases. This fight starts with improving and protecting the health of nerve cells.” – Dr. Maria Maccecchini
