PureTech Health said today it launched Alivio Therapeutics, a new novel tech business aiming to treat inflammatory disorders.
The newly-launched company’s technology is based on hydrogel material designed to adhere to and deliver drugs to inflamed tissue based on the degree of inflammation, the Boston-based company said. The technology was jointly developed by Alivio co-founders Jeff Karp and Robert Langer.
“There are dozens of diseases where inflammation plays a central role, and patients and their doctors are looking for better, longer-lasting treatments that offer relief. We are hopeful that the development of new technologies for delivering and sustaining treatment to inflamed tissue will allow us to manage chronic and acute inflammation with more precision and control,” Alivio scientific advisory board member Dr. Michael Brenner said in a press release.
Alivio said it hopes to overcome current hurdles in treating inflammation through a novel “smart adhere and release” drug delivery system designed to adhere to inflamed tissue and deliver medication based on the levels of inflammation in the tissue, while minimizing risk associated with drug exposure to healthy tissues.
The company said that the tech at the base of the new “adhere and deliver” design has been tested and data on it has been publisehd in Science Translational Medicine.
“What differentiates this technology is its potential to safely adhere to inflamed tissue while controlling drug release based on the amount of inflammation. These unique properties hold promise to change the way inflammatory disease is treated in a variety of indications,” Langer said in prepared remarks.
Joining Karp and Langer at Alivio will be Ivana Magovcevic-Liebisch, who will join the board and act as a director and Dr. Ulrich von Andrian and Dr. Ralph Weissleder who will both join as a scientific advisory board members.
“PureTech is excited to be advancing this important technology, invented by Jeff Karp and Bob Langer, and to be working with our extended team of experts to launch Alivio Therapeutics. There is a tremendous unmet need in inflammatory disease, so we look forward to progressing this platform, which has the potential to deliver drugs to inflammation in a new and meaningful way,” PureTech CEO Daphne Zohar said in a prepared release.