ApoGlyx develops first-in-class therapies based on aquaporin inhibitors.

Aquaporins are channels for water to enter and leave cells, with broad importance in health and disease, ranging from maintaining the body’s fluid balance to roles in cancer, diabetes, malaria, inflammation, autoimmunity and sepsis.

Sepsis is associated with 20% of all deaths. Severe Covid-19 frequently causes Sepsis.

Sepsis is defined as a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by an inappropriate, overshooting defensive reaction of the body to an infection. Bacteria e.g. causing pneumonia, urinary tract infections, or abdominal infections are the most common cause for sepsis. ApoGlyx aquaporin inhibitors do not kill bacteria, but are a promising approach to treat the body’s self-destructive response to infection.

A recent study estimated the worldwide annual incident cases for sepsis at 48.9 million, and found that 11 million sepsis related death were recorded in 2017 (Rudd, Johnson et al. 2020). In the USA, sepsis is the most common cause for in hospital death, with an average cost for standard care of $18,244 per patient, and a total cost of $23.6 billion in US hospitals in 2013. High costs are related to hospital stays that are 75% longer than for most other conditions (Paoli, Reynolds et al. 2018). It is important to note, that even survivors of sepsis may suffer from a profound loss in quality of life, due to long term debilitating effects of sepsis.

ApoGlyx compounds proven to be effective in preclinical sepsis models.

The ongoing global health crisis of COVID-19 has also brought viruses, another common cause of sepsis into focus. In a study from Wuhan, China, sepsis was a complication in 59% of all hospitalized COVID-19 patients, and in 100% of patients that did not survive (Zhou, Yu et al. 2020). Thus, it is now more than ever an urgent requirement to tackle Sepsis.

In the project track Sepidon, ApoGlyx has developed a lead compound that is showing remarkable effects on the body’s self-destruction of organs during preclinical in vivo experiments of sepsis. Sepidon aims to progress to first-in-human clinical trials within two years. The goal of Sepidon is to reduce sepsis related death, to reduce sepsis related health care costs, and to improve the quality of life of sepsis survivors.