Swiss company Amporin Pharmaceuticals has received €157,000 (CHF 150,000) investment from Venture Kick to develop amyloid pore inhibitors to treat deadly degenerative diseases.
Over 50 deadly degenerative diseases — including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, type II diabetes, and many rare neurodegenerative disorders — are linked to protein misfolding and aggregation. Yet no effective treatments exist to halt or reverse the progressive degeneration that ultimately leads to death.
Amporin Pharmaceuticals aims to develop a new class of small-molecule drugs that block and eliminate toxic soluble oligomers and pores from within cell membranes.
These toxic substances accumulate and kill cells by puncturing holes in cell membranes, causing loss of homeostasis and progressive degeneration.
The company plans to develop and license the first effective acute oral disease-modifying treatments for up to six major diseases—including Alzheimer's disease and type II diabetes—with an initial focus on Parkinson's and ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).
Amporin’s founding team includes CEO Dr. Kelvin Stott, CSO Dr. Hervé Schaffhauser, and CMO Prof. Daniel Umbricht, each with over 20 years of CNS drug development and R&D leadership experience in multiple Big Pharma companies, as well as biotech startups.
“Venture Kick has been a critical source of support in helping us to build a world-class company around a world-changing technology,” highlighted Kelvin Stott, Amporin Pharmaceuticals’ Co-Founder and CEO.
“Without it, we had no way forward to turn our potential into reality.”
The funding will help the company to establish its core operations and build a complete in vitro data package to validate and demonstrate the unique advantages of its technology to potential investors and licensing partners.
Lead image: Amporin Co-Founders: CSO Dr. Hervé Schaffhauser, CEO Dr. Kelvin Stott, and CMO Prof. Daniel Umbricht
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