Start-Up Developing Bone Beta-Blockers to Treat Osteoporosis Featured at TechCoire's June 3-4 Investor Conference, UC Davis' Mondavi Center SAN FRANCISCO, May 28
SAN FRANCISCO, May 28 /PRNewswire/ -- OsteoCorp, Inc., an emerging
pharmaceutical company developing a new class of drugs called "bone
beta-blockers" to treat osteoporosis, is among 15 companies that have been
chosen to present to investors and industry executives at TechCoire's
LifeScienceFest 2008. The two-day conference will be held June 3-4 at the
Mondavi Center, University of California, Davis.
More than 250 of the life science industry's top investors, innovators and
executives will attend the conference. The event focuses on bringing together
professionals from related disciplines to discuss growth strategies for life
science companies and showcase leading innovations. Experts in attendance
will feature backgrounds in medical devices, diagnostics, biotech,
bio-informatics and healthcare information technology, among other
specialties. On the first day of the conference, the selected companies will
present at a Venture Summit hosted by TechCoire.
Bone Beta-Blockers to Treat Osteoporosis and other Bone Disorders
OsteoCorp, a San Francisco Bay Area company, was founded in 2006 based on
the discovery that bone formation is controlled by a part of the brain that
mediates the "fight-or-flight" response. Animal studies by OsteoCorp's chief
scientific advisor, Gerard Karsenty, M.D., Ph.D., have shown that bone-forming
cells called osteoblasts possess special surface receptors that regulate bone
formation and resorption via the neurotransmitter noradrenalin. Blocking
noradrenalin receptors with a beta-blocker drug both stimulates bone formation
and inhibits bone resorption to significantly reduce the risk of bone
fractures. Dr. Karsenty is chairman of the department of Genetics and
Development at Columbia University Medical Center, New York.
"Although beta-blockers have been used for more than 30 years to treat
hypertension, cardiac arrhythmias, and migraine headaches, OsteoCorp is
optimizing them as a new class of bone-building drug with broad therapeutic
applications to prevent and treat osteoporosis and other diseases of bone,"
said Charles S. Versaggi, Ph.D., president and CEO of OsteoCorp. "We are
honored to have been chosen by TechCoire to present the exciting news of our
progress to potential investors."
"LifeScienceFest 2008 is literally a showcase of the latest technology
being developed in life sciences, and the event is a must-attend for these
innovative companies and the top investors in the field," said TechCoire
founder Gopan Madathil. "We are pleased to select OsteoCorp, Inc. from a list
of more than 45 companies that submitted to present at this exciting
conference."
Under an exclusive license with the Baylor College of Medicine, OsteoCorp
holds the worldwide patent rights to intellectual property concerning the
regulation of bone formation and resorption through this newly discovered
pathway. With the exception of the bone-building drug Forteo(R)
(teriparatide), a parathyroid hormone-based drug developed and marketed by Eli
Lilly and Company, the majority of today's osteoporosis drugs act primarily to
arrest bone loss. OsteoCorp's bone beta-blockers would comprise the first of
a new class of bone-forming drug designed to increase the density and quality
of bone for all levels of disease severity.
About Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is the most prevalent disease in the Western hemisphere and a
major public health problem worldwide. Half of all women over the age of 50
will have a fracture due to osteoporosis. Bone-building drugs to treat
osteoporosis represent a major unmet medical need and a major market
opportunity for OsteoCorp's bone beta-blockers. Global sales of osteoporosis
drugs have grown from $400 million in 1994 to more than $8 billion today.
According to Business Insight, the market is projected to grow to $14 billion
by 2011.
About LifeScienceFest 2008 and TechCoire
LifeScienceFest 2008 is a part of the Investorfest(R) series of events
produced by TechCoire, the leading organization of technology entrepreneurs
and executives from Northern California. For the past eight years, TechCoire
has developed and hosted leading-edge programs and events focused on helping
early stage entrepreneurs. For more information about LifeScienceFest and to
register, visit http://www.lifesciencefest.com/. For more information about
TechCoire, visit http://techcoire.com/.
SOURCE OsteoCorp, Inc.
