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
Cancer-cachexia is a wasting syndrome that occurs in up to 80% of cancer patients and is the primary cause of death for 1 in 4 of cancer patients1.
Cancer-associated cachexia is a multifactorial metabolic syndrome that is characterized by unintended loss of body weight, with specific losses of skeletal muscle and adipose tissue2. It occurs in up to 80% of cancer patients and is the primary cause of death for up to 30% of cancer patients1. The main symptoms for patients include severe weight loss, anorexia, weakness and fatigue. Furthermore, cancer-associated cachexia has distinctive tumour-driven components and leads to progressive functional impairment, increased risk of treatment failure and toxicity, poor quality of life and cancer-related mortality2.
The disorder is driven by a variable combination of reduced food intake and metabolic changes which distinguishes cachexia from other forms of weight loss. Tumour-related proinflammatory cytokine secretion is one of the main mechanisms underlying cancer cachexia3. The secreted cytokines have a catabolic and anorexigenic effect leading to metabolic abnormalities such as dysregulated appetite signalling, increased energy expenditure, increased lipolysis and reduced lipid storage, and accelerated muscle protein degradation and impaired protein synthesis4.
These metabolic changes can not be reversed by dietary or parenteral nutritional supplementation alone, making the management of cancer cachexia particularly challenging and there is still a large unmet medical need for novel and efficacious pharmacotherapies to improve the quality of life and survival of these patients.
References: 1Fortune Business Insights: Cancer cachexia – pipeline review 2019. 2Fearon, K. et al. Definition and classification of cancer cachexia: an international consensus. Lancet Oncol 12, 489–495 (2011). 3Tisdale, M. J. Catabolic mediators of cancer cachexia. Curr Opin Support Palliat Care 2, 256–261 (2008). 4Baracos, V. E., Martin, L., Korc, M., Guttridge, D. C. & Fearon, K. C. H. Cancer-associated cachexia. Nat Rev Dis Primers 4, 17105 (2018)
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 strengthen the organizational set-up
February 18th 2025
Pephexia is maturing the organization and have promoted Dr. Søren Ljungberg Pedersen to Chief Scientific Officer (CSO), Head of Research, Dr. Kamilla Rolsted to Chief Operating Officer (COO), Head of Development, and Dr. Jenna Hunt E. Hunt to Director of Pharmacology. Keld Fosgerau Pephexia CEO comments: “I am pleased with this strengthening our organization. With our lead project for cancer cachexia today in non-clinical development, we have started preparing for the entry into the early clinical stages. This progress warrants a maturation of the executive management team and retention of core competences, and Søren, Kamilla and Jenna are key employees is this context.
Pephexia selected to participate in NLSinvest2024
August 28th 2024
From hundreds of high-quality applications the Nordic Selection Committee has chosen Pephexia Therapeutics as one of the Rising Stars to join Nordic Life Science Invest. Pephexia Therapeutics is pleased to be able to pitch before 120+ global investors joining the NLSInvest & Nordic Life Science Days.
Pephexia selected for an oral presentation at 11th Helmholtz Diabetes Conference
August 28th 2024
Pephexia Research Scientist Camilla Lund is selected for an oral presentation at the 11th Helmholtz Diabetes Conference specializing in wasting metabolism, Munich.
Pephexia selected for an oral presentation at 17th International Conference of the Society on Sarcopenia, Cachexia, & Wasting Disorders
August 28th 2024
Pephexia has been selected for an oral presentation at the 17th International Conference of the Society on Sarcopenia, Cachexia, & Wasting Disorders, Washington DC.
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
Cancer Cachexia Syndrome
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.