Innovative
Cachexia Treatment
Pephexia Therapeutics is a biotechnology company working with the discovery and development of novel peptide-based pharmacotherapies for an effective and convenient treatment of cachexia, sarcopenia, and related diseases.
FOCUS AREA
Cachexia is a severe and growing wasting disease that affects up to 12 million patients and causes a total of 1.5-2.0 million deaths per year1.
Cachexia is defined as un-intended weight loss of a least 5% in 12 months or less. A range of underlying diseases can cause cachexia, most commonly chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cancer, congestive heart failure, chronic kidney disease, and rheumatoid arthritis2. In cancer cachexia accounts for 20% of the deaths3, and in COPD cachexia is associated with 50% reduction in median survival4. Cachexia patients often experience a loss of appetite and a loss of muscle tissue and strength leading to fatigue, and an overall lowered quality of life2. Moreover, cachexia is associated with an abnormal metabolism with a range of immune, neurohormonal, and biochemical abnormalities associated with the underlying pathologies and a negative energy balance. Treatment of cachexia includes nutritional supplementation, however there is still a large unmet medical need for novel and efficacious pharmacotherapies to improve the quality of life of these patients.
References:
1Von Haehling et al. (2016) JCSM 7 (5), 507-509; 2Eldrige and Dorg (2019) Verywellhealth; 3Fortune Business Insights: Cancer cachexia – pipeline review 2019; 4Wagner et al. (2008) Eur Respir J 31, 492-501.
MISSON
We aim to deliver a novel, innovative, and effective pharmacotherapy for the treatment of cachexia based on naturally occurring peptide hormones.
TEAM
The Team
Board of Directors
Scientific Advisory Board
Advisors
NEWS
Pephexia receives a large Grand Solution grant from IFD
April 5th 2024
Pephexia in collaboration with Copenhagen and Leipzig Universities receives a 26.4MDKK Grand Solution grant from the Danish Innovation Fund (IFD) for the DAPHEXIA (Dual-Acting Peptides for treatment of cacHEXIA) project.
This large grant will enable submission of a clinical trial application (CTA) regarding Pephexia’s clinical candidate PEP-366 which is in development for cancer cachexia. We are honored to have received this significant grant and the continued support from IFD.
Pephexia moves to new facilities
February 8th 2024
After 2½ years at the BioInnovation Institute as a Creation House company and lately as a residence company Pephexia has matured as a company and will now move to new a facility at Fuglebakken, Nordre Fasanvej 215, 2000 Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, Denmark.
This move will give Pephexia access to own offices, shared laboratories, and other facilities and enable the company to grow.
Pephexia receives a grant from the Danish Innovation Fund
February 7th 2024
Pephexia have received an Innobooster Grant of 0.5M DKK from the Innovation Fund Denmark (IFD) to support a research project aiming to develop long-acting metabolic peptides for the treatment of Heart Failure.
This is the third Innobooster grant that Pephexia has received from IFD, the two previous grants have led to the nomination of a clinical candidate on our successful lead project for Cancer Cachexia.
Pephexia selects clinical candidate and expands the organization with clinical competencies
October 31st 2023
Pephexia is happy to announce that a clinical candidate has been nominated from Pephexia’s lead program in cancer cachexia. As a next step the drug candidate, a metabolic peptide, will be progressed towards clinical development through regulatory and CTA-enabling non-clinical studies.
Reflecting this significant progress Pephexia is delighted to welcome two excellent new clinical advisors – Dr. Jonas Sørensen and Prof. Lars J. Pedersen – who with their elaborate clinical experience within cancer and cachexia fields will support the further development of our clinical candidate.
Finally, Pephexia is very pleased to receive a second industrial Postdoc grant from the Innovation Fond Denmark for Camilla Lund, PhD. Camilla comes with a strong background in metabolic research and will in collaboration with Associate Professor Lykke Sylow strengthen the understanding of the mode-of-actions of metabolic peptides in cancer cachexia.
Pephexia has entered research collaboration with Yale University
February 20th 2023
We are pleased to announce that Pephexia Therapeutics ApS has entered a Research Collaboration with Assistant Professor Marc Schneeberger Pané at Yale University. With state-of-the-art imaging technologies Dr. Schneeberger Pane laboratory is investigating how neuronal, immune, and vascular networks coordinately control energy homeostasis. The collaboration aims at investigating the mode-of-action (MoA) of novel peptide drug candidate developed by Pephexia Therapeutics and will strengthen Pephexia’s ambition to bring novel innovative cancer cachexia therapeutics to the market.
Full news archive
A few facts about cachexia
The major underlying diseases of cachexia are COPD, Cancer and Congestive Heart Failure1. As an example up to 40% of patients with COPD experience muscle wasting2.
1Von Haehling et al. (2016) JCSM 7 (5), 507-509; 2Sanders et al (2016) JCSM 7 (1), 5-22.
Cachexia in cancer is responsible for around 20% deaths among cancer patients globally3.
3Fortune Business Insights: Cancer cachexia – pipeline review 2019.
Cachexia in COPD is associated with 50% reduction in median survival4.
4Wagner et al. (2008) Eur Respir J 31, 492-501.