Chlorogen raises $6 million for ovarian-cancer drug

Chlorogen Inc., which genetically engineers tobacco plants to produce therapeutic proteins, has raised $6 million to fund development of an innovative ovarian-cancer drug. The company, based at the Nidus Center for Scientific Enterprise incubator in Creve Coeur, said it expects this round of venture capital investment will last about two years. At that time, it hopes to have a big pharmaceutical company as a partner to fuel further work. The round was funded primarily by Chlorogen's existing investors, four firms that provided it with $5.8 million in 2003: Prolog Ventures of Clayton, Burrill & Co. of San Francisco, Harris & Harris Group Inc. of New York and Redmont Venture Partners of Birmingham, Ala. A fifth investor, Finistere Partners LLC of San Diego, is a partnership involving Jerry Caulder, chairman of Chlorogen's board of directors. David Duncan, Chlorogen's chief executive, said there is a lot of interest in the company, despite controversy over biopharming, the use of genetically modified plants to produce pharmaceuticals and polymers. In fact, Chlorogen is benefiting from the debate, he said. Most concern is over the possibility that biopharm crops might cross-pollinate with unmodified neighbors, contaminating the food and animal feed supplies. But Chlorogen uses a nonfood crop, and it modifies chloroplast cells that do not play a role in reproduction. "We are in a very good position relative to all the others (in biopharming) ... because we have technology that's very environmentally friendly and is being recognized as such," Duncan said. Chlorogen has exclusive rights to chloroplast-transformation technology, which it is licensing to agricultural biotech firms to the tune of about $500,000 a year, he said. The company also is partnering with a university hospital, which Duncan would not identify, that is a pioneer in TGF-beta therapies for gynecological cancers. Chlorogen has grown tobacco plants containing TGF-beta proteins, and it is working to purify them for pharmaceutical use. These proteins, injected into the body, target and kill specific cancer cells. In animal tests, the treatment has shrunk ovarian-cancer tumors without any side effects. Researchers anticipate that, as a preventive measure, the treatment could be periodically given to women who are genetically predisposed to ovarian cancer. It may be able to find and kill precancerous or very early cancerous cells, Duncan said. But these scientists have been unable to reproduce bioactive TGF-beta proteins in mammalian, yeast or bacteria cells - the types now used in production of biologic, or large-molecule protein-based drugs. Chlorogen has grown them in tobacco. The company will use its latest funding to grow larger quantities of the modified plants in open fields and to develop a means of extracting and purifying the bioactive protein. "Purification is the key, and it's a tall hill to climb," Duncan said. "We're making progress, but we're going to use these funds to get us over the top." Chlorogen also is in talks with two major pharmaceutical companies that may be interested in partnering on this project, as well as others, he said. Chlorogen anticipates taking the TGF-beta treatment through preclinical trials, but it would need the financial and marketing muscle of a larger company to get through the regulatory process and sales efforts. "Chlorogen, with its unique technology, continues to make excellent progress," Caulder said. "The company is poised to become a key provider of high-value therapeutic proteins." "Source":[ http://www.checkbiotech.org/root/index.cfm?fuseaction=news&doc_id=12066&start=11&control=169&page_start=1&page_nr=101&pg=1].

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