Epigenetics takes the leap from laboratory work benches to the Stock Market

Year 2000. Prior to the dawn of the 21^st century, researchers Carlos Buesa and Tamara Maes decided to enter the business world by creating Oryzon Genomics, a spin-off of the Universitat de Barcelona and theSpanish National Research Council (CSIC). Their objective was simply to identify and validate genetic markers and proteins of medical benefit in the diagnosis and treatment of serious diseases.

The company's beginnings, like any entrepreneurial venture of this kind, were not easy. However, there were winds of change blowing in Catalonia, which also propelled the launch of biotechnology in the rest of the State. The sector's “golden era” thus began, which included numerous technology-based companies, the development of patents and licences and, above all, the clear vision that the biotechnology industry could be a driving force for the economy's future. In 2003, Oryzon Genomics added NAJETI SCRI to its group of shareholders, which other venture capital firms joined five years later. Between 2008 and 2011, Buesa and Maes’s company managed to raise almost 10 million euros in several rounds of funding. Were the financial perspectives a good omen for this biotech company?

From diagnosis to innovative therapies

The Oryzon Genomics case is paradigmatic for the sector. Between 2008 and 2013, it managed to launch a new product, GynEC-D, on the market for the triage of women suspected of having endometrial cancer. Despite its use in medical diagnosis, this branch of the company soon became an independent subsidiary, OGDSL. They were difficult times, in which “the company ran out of steam”, as Buesa stated in El Confidencial, a Spanish online daily newspaper. They urgently needed funding in order to achieve their products' success on the market. For these two reasons, Oryzon Genomics decided to focus all its efforts on the therapeutic field. It was a gamble. But they won.

In April 2014, Oryzon Genomics announced a contract with the multinational pharmaceutical firm, Roche, to licence a patent family of a very promising molecule for the treatment of acute myeloid leukaemia. Catalan biotechnology research had managed to identify ORY-1001, a very selective inhibitor of the Lysine Specific Demethylase-1 (LSD-1, KDM1) enzyme. This molecule acts as an epigenetic modulator of the regulation of the expression of certain genes, through a demethylation mechanism specific to certain lysine-rich histone amino acids. Months before, the work of Oryzon Genomics had enabled the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to grant ORY-1001 with orphan drug status for the treatment of acute myeloid leukaemia. The first toxicological and clinical studies thus confirmed the promises about a molecule showing the relevant role that epigeneticscould play in future therapies.

Subsequently, it was Roche that confirmed the good omens about the work of Buesa and Maes's company. The contract was announced at the headquarters of the Confederation of Employers and Industries of Spain (CEOE), an event where Carmen Vela, Secretary of State for Research, Development and Innovation, and Regina Revilla, President of the Spanish Bioindustry Association (ASEBIO), were also present. The press conference provided the details of a historical partnership for biotechnology, making Oryzon the greatest success story in the sector so far. Roche would make an upfrontpayment of 21 million dollars (15.2 million euros), which could exceed 500 million dollars in the event that the development of ORY-1001 turned out to be a success.

Moreover, Oryzon Genomics managed to add the word "innovation" to a whole decade of R&D work. The latest news by Buesa and Maes's company is that they have recently taken a leap onto the Stock Market, after shareholders decided to list on the steady market before spring, as a preliminary step to launching on the NASDAQ stock market, which is forecast for 2017. The company thus demonstrated that R&D+i can generate profitability and new hope for medicine, making the leap from epigenetics at the laboratory work benches in Cornellà de Llobregat to the Stock Market possible.