IBEX Technologies Inc.

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Extending Life through Biomarker Research

Montreal-based IBEX Technologies Inc. (TSX: IBT) is a biopharmaceutical company specializing in disease-related biomolecules to develop therapeutics and diagnostics for the management of cancer and arthritis. IBEX also has a growing business selling specialty enzymes and testing kits for arthritis.
Founded in 1986 by Canadian scientist and former director of the Industrial Biotechnology Association of Canada (Ottawa, ON) Robert Heft, PhD, IBEX focuses exclusively on enzymes for therapeutic or diagnostic use.
After 20 years in the business, president and CEO Paul Baehr attributes the company’s success to a simple, but effective, business model.
“You have to do a lot of diligence before making commitments,” Baehr says. “You need to understand the science of the area in which you work and you have got to assemble a competent team. Over the long haul, you need to meet the needs of four major constituents: shareholders, patients, the health-care community and employees. And unless you are satisfying all four of those major constituents, you cannot be successful.”
The company’s founding technology was licensed from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (Cambridge, MA) by Heft, himself an MIT graduate, and involved processes for producing a series of enzymes (glycosaminoglycan lyase enzymes) and the rights for their therapeutic and diagnostic use.
It took some time for the company to perfect a reliable method for economically producing a series of purified enzymes suitable for medical use. In 1992, the company’s first product, Heparinase I, was introduced (under the trademark Hepzyme® b) as a reagent to eliminate heparin contamination before certain routine pre-surgery blood tests were performed (such as the aPTT and PT tests). The following year, Heparinase I was incorporated as a reagent in a sophisticated coagulation monitoring tool for use in bypass surgery marketed by Medtronic Corp. (Minneapolis, MN). Heparinase I functioned as a rapid remover of heparin from a blood sample, allowing for the determination of a patient’s true bleeding potential. This test provided clues to the surgeon during surgery as to whether more heparin was needed, and after surgery to determine if more reversal agents or blood products were required. Also introduced that year was another sophisticated coagulation test from Haemoscope Corp. (Niles, IL), the Heparinase TEG®.
Armed with reliable production techniques, IBEX began thinking about the therapeutic possibilities of its enzymes, and recruiting a senior pharmaceutical executive to guide it in this new path. In 1994, Baehr joined the company as chairman and CEO after an extensive career in the U.S. with Ciba-Geigy Ltd. (Basel, Switzerland) and Sterling-Winthrop Inc. where he had been executive vice-president of the Pharmaceutical Group. Baehr had just completed the merger of Sterling’s pharmaceutical business with that of Sanofi-Aventis (Paris, France) and was looking for an investment and a challenge. And so began the pre-clinical exploration of the therapeutic use of Heparinase I (Neutralase®) for heparin neutralization following bypass surgery, and of Heparinase III (Extravase™) for prevention of reperfusion injury post heart attack.
Neutralase entered the clinic in 1995, the same year that IBEX took over the charter of its parent and began trading as a public company. Neutralase progressed to Phase III clinical testing and in 2001, IBEX sold the therapeutic rights to Neutralase and Extravase to BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (Novato CA), while retaining the rights for diagnostic use.
Following the sale of the therapeutic lyase enzymes, IBEX decided to apply its enzyme expertise to a series of newly characterized enzymes known as kallikreins. A sub-group of the serine protease family, these enzymes were thought to have potential as cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. IBEX acquired the rights to these enzymes in 2002, along with a series of proprietary arthritis tests.
IBEX has been investigating the effects of kallikreins on tumour growth and behaviour using human ovarian cancer cell lines.
“The kallikreins are a very interesting family of enzymes,” says Baehr. “It has been speculated for some time that these kallikreins may in fact be diagnostic or prognostic tools for certain cancers, however, our main interest has always been in the therapeutic opportunities.”
Kallikreins are implicated in promoting tumour growth or metastasis. However, data generated to date, along with the results in animal studies from IBEX collaborators, strongly suggest that instead of promoting tumour growth, several of the kallikreins may actually inhibit the growth or spread of tumours.
Based on the new information, IBEX believes that these kallikreins should no longer be considered just drug targets, at least in ovarian cancer, but should be regarded as presenting very good opportunities as therapeutic strategies for cancer treatment.
Results from these exciting initial studies were presented in April 2006 at the American Association for Cancer Research in Washington, D.C. IBEX has also recently completed preliminary toxicology on the lead kallikrein (human kallikrein 10, or hK10) and is now conducting additional animal tests to help it decide if this drug candidate merits pushing forward into human studies. If the decision is positive, hK10 could be in the clinic in 2007.
IBEX has also seen exciting results from its studies of kallikreins as possible screening agents for ovarian and lung cancer, and discussions are ongoing with several large multinational diagnostic companies about incorporating them into their high throughput clinical diagnostic machines.
IBEX arthritis diagnostic tests have also been meeting with considerable success. The IBEX tests are based on biomarkers (molecular signals) of cartilage degradation and synthesis. These tests are currently used by pharmaceutical researchers in the search for new arthritis treatments. They are primarily used in animal tests, but there is a growing body of evidence that suggest these tests may allow for the selection of patient groups based on whether they are “fast or slow progressors,” a boon to physicians conducting clinical trials.
“All in all, IBEX has had a couple of great years,” Baehr says. “The next 12 months will tell whether the considerable effort by IBEX staff and collaborators will pay off with important medical benefits for the patient communities we serve.”

www.ibex.ca