In collaboration with MolSoft, ImQuest, a Statera company, is investigating new, optimized compositions incorporating desirable elements of STAT-200
FORT COLLINS, Colo., March 07, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Statera Biopharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: STAB), a leading biopharmaceutical company creating next-generation immune therapies that focus on immune restoration and homeostasis, today announced advancement of its next-gen research activities that builds upon the immune modulation activity of STAT-200 on Toll-Like Receptors (TLRs) to improve drug characteristics and clinical benefit beyond opioid receptors.
The research is based on the discovery that STAT-200, which originally was designed to antagonize opioid receptors, modulates multiple signaling pathways through receptors known as TLRs. These receptors act as master controllers of inflammation. Statera’s discovery platform identifies novel compositions that build upon STAT-200 by modulating multiple cellular targets, versus one, to restore cellular homeostasis. These findings have led to the selection of promising new compositions with the potential to treat a range of inflammatory-related diseases.
“The platform could not have existed before the discovery of the effect of STAT-200 on TLRs,” said Stephen Wilson, PhD, Chief Innovation Officer at Statera. “With this knowledge, we have an immense opportunity to improve drug characteristics and clinical benefit because we aren’t limited to optimizations based on opioid receptors alone.”
The platform rapidly screened billions of potential compositions, resulting in hundreds of promising targets. The top ten compositions were highly compelling, and three of them are currently being synthesized for biologic validation. Statera partnered with MolSoft, a leader in computational chemistry and bioinformatics software, to conduct the computational discovery through its proprietary Rapid Isostere Discovery Engine (RIDE) technology.
“A paradigm shift is daring, but these initial findings have proven that Statera’s approach can identify actionable compositions that would be missed using traditional constraints,” said Dr. Andrew Orry, MolSoft’s Senior Research Scientist.
Last year, Statera acquired ImQuest Life Sciences, Inc., which evaluates biologics and pharmaceuticals in preclinical development. ImQuest plans to begin functional validation of key compositions and expects to accumulate datasets to select the best leads for animal safety/efficacy testing in multiple indications.
About Statera Biopharma
Statera Biopharma, Inc. (formerly Cytocom, Inc.) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel immunotherapies targeting autoimmune, neutropenia/anemia, emerging viruses and cancers based on a proprietary platform designed to rebalance the body’s immune system and restore homeostasis. Statera has a large platform of toll-like receptor (TLR) agonists with TLR4 and TLR9 antagonists, and the TLR5 agonists, Entolimod and GP532. TLRs are a class of protein that plays a key role in the innate immune system. Statera is developing therapies designed to directly elicit within patients a robust and durable response of antigen-specific killer T-cells and antibodies, thereby activating essential immune defenses against autoimmune, inflammatory, infectious diseases, and cancers. Statera has clinical or preclinical programs for Crohn’s disease (STAT-201), hematology (Entolimod), pancreatic cancer (STAT-401) and COVID-19 (STAT-205) in addition to potential expansion into fibromyalgia and multiple sclerosis. To learn more about Statera, please visit www.staterabiopharma.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of current or historical fact contained in this press release, including statements regarding the Company’s expected clinical development timeline for the Company’s product candidates, future financial position, business strategy, new products, budgets, liquidity, cash flows, projected costs, regulatory approvals, the impact of any laws or regulations applicable to the Company, and plans and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “should,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “will,” and similar expressions, as they relate to us, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements on the current expectations about future events held by management. While we believe these expectations are reasonable, such forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company’s control. The Company’s actual future results may differ materially from those discussed here for various reasons. The Company discusses many of these risks under the heading “Risk Factors” in the proxy statement/prospectus filed with the SEC on June 10, 2021, as updated by the Company’s other filings with the SEC.
Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date hereof. We do not undertake any obligation to update any such statements or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to any of such statements to reflect future events or developments.
Contacts:
Statera Biopharma
Nichol Ochsner
Executive V.P. Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
(732) 754-2545
nichol.ochsner@staterabiopharma.com
FINN Partners
Glenn Silver (Media)
(973) 818-8198
glenn.silver@finnpartners.com
FINN Partners
David Carey (IR)
(212) 867-1768
David.carey@finnpartners.com
