Article Excerpt:
TWST: May we start with a description of KAI Pharmaceuticals?Mr. James: It's pronounced "Kî" and it stands for kinase activators and inhibitors. KAI was incorporated in mid-2002 on the basis of technology that was licensed from Stanford University. We are a private venture capital financed biopharmaceutical company, focused on discovery and development of first-in- class drugs, which address important diseases in the areas of ischemia, reperfusion, pain, inflammation, and angiogenesis. The technology is based upon the biology of a family of enzymes known collectively as protein kinase C or PKC. We've created compounds, which can modulate the activity of each of these PKC isozymes with a high degree of specificity and potency, which allows us to pursue novel therapeutics. We are a development-stage company and have recently completed a human efficacy trial with our first drug candidate in acute myocardial infarction or heart attack. And we recently established a global strategic alliance for this program with Daiichi Sankyo Pharmaceuticals, which is the second largest drug company in Japan. We are a well-financed company and have raised $63 million in venture capital since the company's inception.
TWST: Would you elaborate on PKC's biological role, with particular emphasis on
how it prevents reperfusion?
Mr. James: As I mentioned, there are a family of enzymes in the PKC group.
Precisely there are eight of them, and we have a technology platform that allows
us to generate compounds, which can selectively activate or inhibit each of
those isozymes. So in the very base case, you could say that we have 16
druggable mechanisms in our portfolio.
In the case of ischemia and reperfusion injury, the PKC of interest is delta
PKC. Delta PKC is activated in reperfusion injury. Our compound inhibits the
activation of delta PKC, and therefore, prevents the damage caused by delta PKC
activation. What delta PKC does is initiate a dual cascade of damage in the
heart tissue, both apoptosis or programmed cell death and necrosis, both of
which will lead to inflammation.
Tickers included in this excerpt: PVT
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