Confo Awarded $1.8  Million Grant to Expand Application of Its Technology in Rare Diseases

Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship awarded Belgian biotech Confo Therapeutics a $1.8 (€1.7) million grant, further validating and supporting the discovery of novel GPCR (G protein-coupled receptor) drug candidates using its Confo’s proprietary technology to develop needed new treatments for rare diseases.

Photo: Cedric Ververken, CEO of Confo Therapeutics

The company said it intends to address an important target for neurological orphan conditions which is currently considered to be an undruggable GPCR.

“If successful, the research pursued under the aegis of this VLAIO grant will allow us to unlock new potential treatments for unmet disease areas and to simultaneously pursue new technology developments,” said Christel Menet, chief scientific officer of Confo Therapeutics. “This will ultimately shorten our drug discovery timelines, allowing us to access relevant GPCR conformations faster while dramatically increasing our screening efficiency.”

The grant will enable the company to further extend its current universal ConfoBody, Cb35, toward other G proteins. A ConfoBody is a single-domain VHH antibody, the antigen binding fragment of heavy chain only antibodies, that binds to and stabilizes a GPCR in its therapeutically relevant conformation. Confo says they therefore enable superior and more efficient drug discovery for dynamic membrane proteins in their natural environment and state. The funds will also be used to identify additional universal ConfoBodies for use in the company’s ConfoSensor screening technology, which enables the identification of smaller, difficult to detect chemical starting points in GPCR drug discovery and development.

“As we await data from our ongoing phase 1 clinical trial with our lead neuropathic pain program, CFTX-1554, VLAIO’s support will allow us to continue investigating the broad utility of our ConfoSensor technology and expand our proprietary pipeline for rare disease indications,” said Cedric Ververken, CEO of Confo Therapeutics.

Author: Rare Daily Staff