SFA Therapeutics
Regulating the immune system to block cancer & autoimmune diseases
SFA Therapeutics is creating therapeutically-tailored oral drugs that regulate the immune system from bacterial metabolites; with a focus on autoimmune diseases and cancers that originate from chronic inflammation. There are over 100 million patients who suffer from autoimmune diseases. Our treatment is designed to block the root cause of many of these chronic inflammatory diseases, with a safe oral drug.
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Active Founders
Ira Spector, Founder
Dr. Spector is the co-founder of SFA, a microbiome-derived pharmaceutical company focused on new advancements in the treatment inflammatory diseases. An experienced drug developer with over 30 years of experience, he helped develop 34 drugs and 12 medical devices, including Enbrel, Effexor, Protonix, Prevenar, Ozurdex, Botox for Overactive Bladder, Chronic Migraine and Cerebral Palsy. He holds BS degrees in Physics and EE from Washington University, an MBA from Drexel, and a PhD from Rutgers.
Alla Arzumanyan, Founder
MS is Microbiology, PhD in Biotechnology, Assistant Professor at Temple University, Co-Founder and Co-Inventor at SFA Therapeutics, Inc. Performed a case-control, Proof-of-Activity Human study to evaluate treatment effect of SFA002 drug (proprietary of SFA Therapeutics, Inc.) on patients with plaque psoriasis. Worked with Axella Research on pre-IND application for SFA002. Worked with HEC (Sunshine Lake Pharma Co., China), Theravectys, and ThirdLaw LLC (still collaborating with the latter)
Mark Feitelson, Founder
Mark Feitelson received his Ph.D. in Microbiology/Immunology from UCLA. He began his work with hepatitis B at Stanford University, and was then recruited to the Fox Chase Cancer Center by Dr. Baruch Blumberg (Nobel laureate). In 1991, Dr. Feitelson moved to Thomas Jefferson University, and in 2007, to Temple University as a Professor of Biology. His work has been supported by NIH, industry and foundations. He has more than 150 publications and 180 abstracts. He is also CSO of SFA Therapeutics.
Hear from the founders
What is the core problem you are solving? Why is this a big problem? What made you decide to work on it?
A completely new approach to treating autoimmune disease, by treating the underlying disease instead of suppressing the immune system.
What is your long-term vision? If you truly succeed, what will be different about the world?
Functional cures for autoimmune diseases
Selected answers from SFA Therapeutics's original YC application for the S21 Batch
How long have each of you been working on this? How much of that has been full-time? Please explain.
Dr. Feitelson has been working in liver disease for over 35 years. He trained at UCLA Geffen Medical School and was invited to work with Dr. Baruch Blumberg at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia as a postdoctoral fellow. Dr. Blumberg discovered Hepatitis B and developed the first vaccine for it, and received the Nobel Prize for this work in 1976. Dr. Feitelson has continued this work, first at Fox Chase, then at Jefferson University Medical School, and then came to Temple University 13 years ago. He has been working out the pathogenesis and mechanisms of liver cancer for over 30 years, which led to the discoveries upon which SFA is based.
Dr. Arzumanyan was invited to the US 16 years ago to test medicinal compounds that she was researching for their potential use in treating HIV and cancer. She has been working with Dr. Feitelson as a collaborator in his laboratory for over 14 years.
Dr. Feitelson first postulated the experiments that led to SFA over 5 years ago. Dr. Arzumanyan extended the animal work in liver disease to psoriasis in humans and ran the proof-of-concept trial in humans in psoriasis 5 years ago.
Dr. Spector reviewed their data 5 years ago and realized the applicability of these agents and mechanisms to a wider range of diseases. He has been working full time on this since 2017, while Drs. Feitelson and Arzumanyan have been spending approximately 50% of their time on this research.
We incorporated in late 2016, so together as a team we have been working on this for over 4 years.
What is your company going to make? Please describe your product and what it does or will do.
SFA Therapeutics, Inc is a biotech with a novel immunomodulatory platform that is focused on the intersection of NF-kB and Ras in the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases and oncogenesis (the onset of cancer), respectively.
Our vision is to change the practice of Medicine by treating chronic inflammatory conditions that result in cancer, such as hepatitis, which progresses to liver cancer, and pancreatitis, which progresses to pancreatic cancer, by blocking the primary inflammatory pathways with our discoveries..
SFA is developing small molecule drugs originally derived from human GI bacterial metabolites, which have been shown to modulate the immune system through a complex cascade that affects several important molecular pathways, ultimately downregulating NF-kB and RAS, which control involved in inflammation and carcinogenesis. This platform has led to the development of six drugs to treat immuno-inflammatory diseases, using psoriasis as a proof-of concept for autoimmune diseases and chronic liver diseases that are caused by inflammation, including Hepatitis B virus-mediated chronic liver disease, NASH and Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC), the most common form of liver cancer. SFA’s two most advanced assets are SFA001 and SFA002, for liver disease and autoimmune diseases, respectively. SFA002 has an approved IND and is ready to enter into clinical trials in patients.
Our plan is to develop these drugs through phase 2 and create phase 3-ready assets, to license to pharma and biotech partners, in exchange for license fees, royalties and milestone payments.