Aptorum Group Announces the Development of Microbiome Drug Candidate Targeting Obesity and Repurposed Drug Candidates Targeting Neuroblastoma
9.9.2019 13:34:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
Aptorum Group Limited (Nasdaq: APM) (“Aptorum Group”), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel therapeutics to address global unmet medical needs, announces the development of two preclinical drug candidates which target obesity and neuroblastoma, respectively.
About CLS-1: Treatment of obesity via modulation of chemical signaling relating to gut microbiota
Under the recently-announced microbiota modulation platform operated by Aptorum Group’s wholly-owned subsidiary Claves Life Sciences Limited, we have commenced the preclinical development of macromolecule candidate CLS-1 targeting the treatment of obesity. CLS-1 is undergoing lead optimization and is expected to progress into the IND enabling stage in 2020.
The prevalence of obesity continues to escalate globally; however, there is no current optimal therapy for this condition1. For the majority of obese patients, conventional medical therapies (i.e., diet, exercise, behavioral counseling) often have a high failure rate for the long term2. We believe current pharmacotherapy has limited efficacy and is associated with substantial safety issues, and this will provide immeasurable market opportunity for CLS-1.
Chemical signaling of gut microbiota is known to be one of the major causes of obesity1. CLS-1 is an orally administered non-absorbable macromolecule that modulates the metabolite excreted by gut microbiota with high affinity and specificity. In this way, we believe the absorption of this particular metabolite, which is linked to obesity, can be inhibited.
Aptorum Group is also pursuing two further indications based on the modulation of microbiota based chemical signaling involving the above large molecule technology, which we believe to be highly scalable and we hope to be making further announcements regarding our efforts in due course.
About SACT-1: Repurposed Drug Candidates for the Treatment of Neuroblastoma
Under the recently announced Smart-ACTTM computational drug discovery platform operated by our wholly-owned subsidiary Smart Pharma Group, Aptorum Group has completed computational screening of approximately 1,615 marketed drugs against 3 therapeutic target proteins to potentially tackle poor prognosis of neuroblastoma, i.e., a rare type of children’s cancer that forms in certain types of nerve tissue and most frequently in the adrenal glands as well as spine, chest, abdomen or neck, especially in children3. For the high-risk group, the 5-year survival rate of this condition is around 40-50% as observed by the American Cancer Society.4 Aptorum Group has identified an array of repurposed candidates and has proceeded to evaluate them in cell-based and animal models in order to validate the candidates’ usage for such new indication and potential efficacies.
Aptorum Group is also pursuing two further indications under the Smart-ACTTM drug discovery platform and hopes to be making further announcements regarding our research in due course.
About Aptorum Group Limited
Aptorum Group Limited (Nasdaq: APM) is a pharmaceutical company dedicated to developing and commercializing novel therapeutics to tackle unmet medical needs. Aptorum Group is pursuing therapeutic projects in neurology, infectious diseases, gastroenterology, oncology and other disease areas.
For more information about Aptorum Group, please visit www.aptorumgroup.com.
About Claves Life Sciences Limited
Claves Life Sciences Limited is a wholly-owned therapeutics subsidiary of Aptorum Group Limited. Claves focuses on the clinical development of therapeutic candidates related to the field of gastroenterology. The potential candidates under review and potentially developed focus on the modulation of gut microbiota-derived metabolites, for the prevention or treatment of diseases. Claves is also exploring a gut microbiota modulation platform that can generate novel customized candidates capable of fine-tuning levels of gut metabolites, potentially treating a wide range of medical conditions.
About Smart Pharma Group
Smart Pharma Group includes Smart Pharmaceutical Limited Partnership, SMTPH Limited and its subsidiaries. The Smart Pharma Group is wholly owned by Aptorum Group Limited. Smart Pharma Group focuses on systematically repurposing existing approved drugs for the treatment of a large array of orphan diseases. Smart Pharma Group conducts both computational based screening and preclinical validations in advancing the development of its repurposed candidates.
For more information about Smart Pharma Group, please visit www.smtph.com.
Disclaimer and Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes statements concerning Aptorum Group Limited and its future expectations, plans and prospects that constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. For this purpose, any statements contained herein that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “may,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “could,” “intends,” “target,” “projects,” “contemplates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential,” or “continue,” or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions. Aptorum Group has based these forward-looking statements, which include statements regarding projected timelines for application submissions and trials, largely on its current expectations and projections about future events and trends that it believes may affect its business, financial condition and results of operations. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions including, without limitation, risks related to its announced management and organizational changes, the continued service and availability of key personnel, its ability to expand its product assortments by offering additional products for additional consumer segments, development results, the company’s anticipated growth strategies, anticipated trends and challenges in its business, and its expectations regarding, and the stability of, its supply chain, and the risks more fully described in Aptorum Group’s Form 20-F and other filings that Aptorum Group may make with the SEC in the future. As a result, the projections included in such forward-looking statements are subject to change. Aptorum Group assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
|
1 Protein Cell. May; 9(5): 397–403. 2 Obes Surg. 2012 Jun;22(6):956-66 3 https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms?expand=N 4 See https://www.cancer.org/cancer/neuroblastoma/detection-diagnosis-staging/survival-rates.html. |
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190909005437/en/
Contact information
Investors:
Tel: +852 2117 6611
Email: investor.relations@aptorumgroup.com
Media:
Tel: + 852 2117 6611
Email: info@aptorumgroup.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Netmore Named Smart Company of the Year at the Premios iAgua 20261.10.2026 20:00:00 EEST | Press release
Netmore Group, the leading network operator and platform provider for Massive IoT, today announced it has been named Empresa Smart del Año — Smart Company of the Year — at the Premios iAgua 2026, the awards of iAgua, the Spanish-speaking water sector's leading media platform. The award was presented at the closing gala of the Spain Smart Water Summit, held at the Meliá Avenida América in Madrid. The award recognises a company that has taken an unusual route into water. Netmore is not a technology firm that added connectivity to its portfolio: it is a network operator that decided to specialise in the water cycle. In eighteen months, it has completed four acquisitions and become the world's largest LoRaWAN® network operator, with more than eighteen million IoT devices under contract across more than fifty countries. Its commitment to Spain took concrete form with the acquisition of Arson Metering, the Bilbao-based remote reading specialist, which brings a portfolio of more than 500,000
Elliptic Sets the Engineering Bar for On-Chain Risk With “Built for Compliance” Paper as New Rules Take Hold and Banks Launch a Joint Stablecoin1.10.2026 16:40:00 EEST | Press release
Elliptic, the global leader in on-chain risk management, today published Built for compliance, a paper setting out the nine engineering decisions that determine whether an on-chain risk system can support fast, accurate and defensible compliance decisions at agentic scale. Machines are already moving money on their own, at machine speed. Compliance teams now have to make hundreds of thousands of decisions a day, at that same speed. However, many on-chain risk systems were never engineered to support that pace. A compliance system that computes exposure on a schedule delivers stale results. One that defines blockchain coverage loosely enough lets a screening miss exposure entirely. A system that skips testing disaster recovery, a spike or an outage, takes down the customer’s compliance system too. That gap between machine speed and system design is exactly what regulators are now closing. As US regulators put together market-structure regulation, the GENIUS Act's stablecoin rules take h
Andersen Global Enhances Pakistan Legal Presence with New Member Firm1.10.2026 16:30:00 EEST | Press release
Andersen Global strengthens its legal presence in Pakistan as Samdani & Qureshi, a collaborating firm since 2021, rebrands to Andersen Legal in Pakistan and is the latest member firm to join the organization. Headquartered in Islamabad, Andersen Legal in Pakistan advises domestic and international clients, including businesses, investors, financial institutions, public sector entities, development organizations, and individuals, on legal, commercial, and regulatory matters. The firm also handles arbitration and dispute resolution, advising on complex transactions, investments, finance, projects, and contentious matters in Pakistan and across borders. “Our approach is grounded in senior attention, clear communication, and disciplined analysis, with a focus on delivering advice that clients can put into action,” said Nudrat Ejaz Piracha, partner at Andersen Legal in Pakistan. “Joining Andersen Global enables us to build on this approach by drawing on additional capabilities and perspecti
Impartner Releases AI Ecosystem Playbook to Help Organizations Move from AI Experimentation to Execution1.10.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
Impartner, the world’s leading partner revenue orchestration platform, today announced the release of its AI Ecosystem Playbook, a new resource designed to help leaders and teams assess their current AI capabilities, identify areas where AI can support business goals, and develop a practical path to implementation. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261001661549/en/ Impartner’s AI Ecosystem Playbook helps organizations assess AI readiness and identify opportunities to apply AI across PRM 3.0, partner revenue orchestration, and the partner lifecycle. As AI moves from experimentation into everyday operations, companies need more than a collection of potential applications. They need a framework for understanding where they are ready to apply AI, where foundational gaps could limit its impact, and which opportunities should be prioritized. Impartner’s AI Ecosystem Playbook provides guidance through a maturity model,
Whiteford Adds Six Partners in New York City, Expanding its Litigation, International and Corporate Practices1.10.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
Whiteford, Taylor & Preston, a full-service law firm with offices across the East Coast, today announced that six partners from Chambers-rated Lazare Potter Glazer & Moyle LLP have joined Whiteford’s New York office: David E. Potter, James F. Moyle, Johannes K. Gäbel, Jaipat Singh Jain, Anna Pia D. Felix and Jacob Englander. This team expands Whiteford's New York office to more than two dozen attorneys and deepens the firm's commercial and securities litigation, employment, cross-border and corporate capabilities in the New York market. The six partners bring decades of combined experience representing mid-market companies, investment advisers, hedge funds, foreign corporations, entrepreneurs and executives in litigation, regulatory investigations, and complex business transactions. "We are expanding with our clients, our markets and our reputation," said Martin Fletcher, Whiteford's Managing Partner. "This team validates our approach. Whiteford’s platform is designed to help grow and
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom