Emvena Therapeutics has emerged from stealth with backing from the Penn-BioNTech Innovative Therapeutics Seed Fund to advance an experimental approach to treating preeclampsia, a pregnancy complication that can pose serious risks to both mothers and babies. The Philadelphia-based biotechnology company was co-founded by Kelsey Swingle, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Rice University, and is built around technology developed during her doctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania.
Preeclampsia affects an estimated 2% to 8% of pregnancies worldwide. Current management largely involves close monitoring and treatment of symptoms, with delivery often the only definitive option. Emvena is pursuing a different strategy: targeting biological mechanisms in the placenta that contribute to the condition, with the longer-term objective of developing a treatment that addresses the disease process itself.
The company’s platform uses specialized lipid nanoparticles to deliver therapeutic payloads to the placenta. In preclinical mouse studies, researchers used the platform to deliver messenger RNA encoding vascular endothelial growth factor to the placenta, resulting in a reversal of elevated blood pressure and improvements in measures of placental and fetal health. This early data may support further development, although additional research is required to determine safety and efficacy in humans.
Source: drug-dev.com · Image: NIH- NIAID Division Infectious Diseases (CC0)
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