About Us

Our Vision

More sepsis survivors and a better quality of life for sepsis survivors.

Our Mission

Apoglyx exists to bring innovative therapies to patients. Our most advanced approach is targeting sepsis, which is estimated to affect up to 50 million people every year and could be the cause of 11 million deaths, according to the Global Sepsis Alliance. Among these, small children are affected frequently. There is currently no specific cure for sepsis. A recent study estimated the worldwide annual incident cases for sepsis at 48.9 million and 11 million sepsis-related deaths 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 of $23.6 billion in US hospitals in 2013. High costs are related to hospital stays that are 75% longer for sepsis patients 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.

Our History

ApoGlyx was founded in 2015 based on ten years of research by CEO Dr. Michael Rützler and Professor Søren Nielsen, MD, at Aarhus University, together with the group of Prof. Per Kjellbom from Lund University that led to the discovery of small molecule aquaporin-9 inhibitors. Our company was founded by passionate inventors to tackle metabolic diseases involving the regulation of glycerol uptake into the liver, but as research and development proceeded our scope has widened due to the potential of this technology in further applications.

Research in Søren Nielsen’s group had previously demonstrated normalization of blood glucose in otherwise type-2 diabetic mice if the aquaporin-9 gene was missing. This observation led to the hypothesis that chemical inhibition of aquaporin-9 could be suitable to treat human type-2 diabetes. It was then when the academic researchers started to collaborate with Red Glead Discovery, to explore the possibility of optimizing early lead aquaporin-9 inhibitors, and to further validate aquaporin-9, as a drug target in type-2 diabetes.

Subsequent exploratory work was supported by grants from Novo Nordisk Fonden and Vinnova, as part of the SWElife projects for better health programme and in collaboration with the group of Professor Giuseppe Calamita at the University of Bari, Italy. This work has led to two proof-of-concept demonstrations in in vivo disease models, utilizing the lead aquaporin-9 inhibitor RG100204:

1) A blood glucose lowering effect the in an in vivo model of diabetes has been demonstrated in 2018.

2) A strong protection from organ damage has been demonstrated in a clinically relevant in vivo model of sepsis.

OUR TEAM

Michael Rützler, PhD

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Preben Bruun-Nyzell

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Helen Petterson, PhD

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Johan Evenäs, PhD

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Professor Søren Nielsen, MD

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Andreas L. Norlin, PhD

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SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

The ApoGlyx scientific advisory board exists to:

  • Help shape the development program and product portfolio
  • Serve as objective reviewers who have an external perspective and are a mark of quality and authentication

Professor John Dirk Nieland, PhD

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Professor Giuseppe Calamita, PhD

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SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATIONS

ApoGlyx is collaborating with the groups of Professor Giuseppe Calamita at the University of Bari, Professor Angela Tesse Ragot at the University of Nantes, France, and the group of Professor Per Kjellbom at Lund University, to further elucidate the function and mode of action of aquaporin-9 in sepsis, diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The collaboration recently included exchange, and joint supervision of students, joint international grant applications, and has resulted in joint publications.