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Executive Spotlight: Ray Jupp, PhD, Vice President, Sanofi-Aventis Fibrosis and Wound Repair Therapeutic Strategy Unit
March 2011
In February 2011, sanofi-aventis (Bridgewater, NJ) and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (Toronto, Canada) entered into a research agreement and licensing option for Vasculotide, an investigational compound to treat chronic wounds, including neuropathic (i.e., neuroischemic) diabetic foot ulcers. The agreement underscores Sanofi-aventis’ burgeoning interest in the wound care sector and its intent to translate innovative prototypes into therapies.
Ray Jupp, PhD, is Vice President of Sanofi’s Fibrosis & Wound Repair Therapeutic Strategy Unit, one of five Therapeutic Strategy Units created as part of the Company’s new research and development model. Three of these units cover major areas of pathophysiology where there is a significant unmet medical need — i.e., immuno-inflammatory disorders, infectious disease, and fibrosis and wound repair.
Dr. Jupp’s unit is focused on several areas:
• Therapeutic solutions for tissue injury, fibrosis and wound repair, including small molecules, biologics, botanical drugs, tissue engineering;
• Technologies that improve diagnostics related to tissue fibrosis, re-modeling or wound healing, including biomarkers and non-invasive technologies, such as imaging for patient stratification and clinical markers;
• Enhanced drug delivery (parenteral delivery devices/technologies, novel formulations, targeted organ delivery, sustained or controlled release technologies);
• New mechanistic pathways or targets regulating responses to tissue injury and repair processes;
• Novel approaches to diseases whose pathology is associated with acute or chronic tissue injury;
• Healthcare solutions for tissue repair, especially advanced wound care.
“The number of effective therapies for patients whose wounds don’t heal properly is limited,” says Dr. Jupp. “A large number of chronic wounds occur in patients with diabetes and we have a strong collaboration with our Diabetes Division to help these patients. This strategy is in sync with our goal to identify pathologies and mechanisms that run through many diseases. We started by listening to patients and clinicians to gain a pragmatic perspective and subsequently formed the Fibrosis & Wound Repair Therapeutic Strategy Unit to identify treatment solutions which may require fusion of distinct scientific disciplines including chemistry, pharmaceutics and material sciences. We are building on that plan by reaching out to academic institutions and biotech companies to form partnerships.”
Researchers at Stonybrook have been working for years on identifying a prototype molecule to improve healing. That molecule — Vasculotide — is a synthetic peptide-based growth factor that targets Tie-2, a receptor on specialized cells of the hematopoietic and vascular systems that may provide a shortcut to the series of molecular activities involved in blood vessel growth that ultimately lead to wound regranulation and closure. Once the prototype is ready for clinical trials, the Fibrosis & Wound Repair Therapeutic Strategy Unit will advance the development process by using the prototype to create a product, most likely topical, for chronic wounds. In addition to diabetic foot ulcers, research is also being conducted on the neuropathy and ischemic pathologies of other chronic wounds, such as venous leg ulcers.
“We recognize we have to move in new directions,” Dr. Jupp says. “The industry as a whole has been criticized for coming up with drugs that provide small incremental improvements in areas where there were already many therapies. Our industry has great science, but it’s not getting translated into practice –this is where we plan to make a difference.”
Sanofi-aventis is working diligently to get the message out that they now have a presence in the wound care arena. In addition, the Company wants to identify researchers and others who are similarly looking to bring prototypes forward and develop them into patient therapies. Dr. Jupp’s group has established numerous collaborations with academic partners who have expertise in material science and can enhance product delivery mechanisms. Such collaborations also include patient input through clinicians present within the Fibrosis & Wound Repair Therapeutic Strategy Unit.
“As part of our partnering program, we have started to interact with scientists at MIT (Cambridge, MA),” Dr. Jupp says. “We are attempting to pull together researchers from different scientific fields to generate novel solutions for patients. As a pharmaceutical company, we have not historically done things this way but moving forward it is very important to leverage diverse scientific disciplines in order to develop a sophisticated delivery strategy that patients want to utilize. From talking to patients, we know that ideally they would like their diabetic foot ulcers to be treated once a week, not more frequently. We know that if patients are going to do well with a therapy, they need to be compliant with that therapy and inconvenience will thwart compliance.”
Sanofi-aventis’s Fibrosis & Wound Repair Strategy Unit has researchers based in Bridgewater, NJ, and Paris, France. Researchers have expertise in biochemistry, cell biology and pharmacology. The clinicians in the Unit regularly interact with patients and scientists to help bridge the gap between science and bedside. “We have the ability to network with people from different scientific fields and disciplines in order to bring forth the necessary components to deliver a product — from idea through clinical proof of concept,” Dr. Jupp says. “We believe that chronic wounds are not going to be served effectively by a single scientific approach and we need to do something more than that— this is what we are endeavoring to do within the Fibrosis & Wound Repair Unit.”
Visit www.sanofi-aventis.us for more information.
Ray Jupp, PhD, is Vice President of Sanofi’s Fibrosis & Wound Repair Therapeutic Strategy Unit, one of five Therapeutic Strategy Units created as part of the Company’s new research and development model. Three of these units cover major areas of pathophysiology where there is a significant unmet medical need — i.e., immuno-inflammatory disorders, infectious disease, and fibrosis and wound repair.
Dr. Jupp’s unit is focused on several areas:
• Therapeutic solutions for tissue injury, fibrosis and wound repair, including small molecules, biologics, botanical drugs, tissue engineering;
• Technologies that improve diagnostics related to tissue fibrosis, re-modeling or wound healing, including biomarkers and non-invasive technologies, such as imaging for patient stratification and clinical markers;
• Enhanced drug delivery (parenteral delivery devices/technologies, novel formulations, targeted organ delivery, sustained or controlled release technologies);
• New mechanistic pathways or targets regulating responses to tissue injury and repair processes;
• Novel approaches to diseases whose pathology is associated with acute or chronic tissue injury;
• Healthcare solutions for tissue repair, especially advanced wound care.
“The number of effective therapies for patients whose wounds don’t heal properly is limited,” says Dr. Jupp. “A large number of chronic wounds occur in patients with diabetes and we have a strong collaboration with our Diabetes Division to help these patients. This strategy is in sync with our goal to identify pathologies and mechanisms that run through many diseases. We started by listening to patients and clinicians to gain a pragmatic perspective and subsequently formed the Fibrosis & Wound Repair Therapeutic Strategy Unit to identify treatment solutions which may require fusion of distinct scientific disciplines including chemistry, pharmaceutics and material sciences. We are building on that plan by reaching out to academic institutions and biotech companies to form partnerships.”
Researchers at Stonybrook have been working for years on identifying a prototype molecule to improve healing. That molecule — Vasculotide — is a synthetic peptide-based growth factor that targets Tie-2, a receptor on specialized cells of the hematopoietic and vascular systems that may provide a shortcut to the series of molecular activities involved in blood vessel growth that ultimately lead to wound regranulation and closure. Once the prototype is ready for clinical trials, the Fibrosis & Wound Repair Therapeutic Strategy Unit will advance the development process by using the prototype to create a product, most likely topical, for chronic wounds. In addition to diabetic foot ulcers, research is also being conducted on the neuropathy and ischemic pathologies of other chronic wounds, such as venous leg ulcers.
“We recognize we have to move in new directions,” Dr. Jupp says. “The industry as a whole has been criticized for coming up with drugs that provide small incremental improvements in areas where there were already many therapies. Our industry has great science, but it’s not getting translated into practice –this is where we plan to make a difference.”
Sanofi-aventis is working diligently to get the message out that they now have a presence in the wound care arena. In addition, the Company wants to identify researchers and others who are similarly looking to bring prototypes forward and develop them into patient therapies. Dr. Jupp’s group has established numerous collaborations with academic partners who have expertise in material science and can enhance product delivery mechanisms. Such collaborations also include patient input through clinicians present within the Fibrosis & Wound Repair Therapeutic Strategy Unit.
“As part of our partnering program, we have started to interact with scientists at MIT (Cambridge, MA),” Dr. Jupp says. “We are attempting to pull together researchers from different scientific fields to generate novel solutions for patients. As a pharmaceutical company, we have not historically done things this way but moving forward it is very important to leverage diverse scientific disciplines in order to develop a sophisticated delivery strategy that patients want to utilize. From talking to patients, we know that ideally they would like their diabetic foot ulcers to be treated once a week, not more frequently. We know that if patients are going to do well with a therapy, they need to be compliant with that therapy and inconvenience will thwart compliance.”
Sanofi-aventis’s Fibrosis & Wound Repair Strategy Unit has researchers based in Bridgewater, NJ, and Paris, France. Researchers have expertise in biochemistry, cell biology and pharmacology. The clinicians in the Unit regularly interact with patients and scientists to help bridge the gap between science and bedside. “We have the ability to network with people from different scientific fields and disciplines in order to bring forth the necessary components to deliver a product — from idea through clinical proof of concept,” Dr. Jupp says. “We believe that chronic wounds are not going to be served effectively by a single scientific approach and we need to do something more than that— this is what we are endeavoring to do within the Fibrosis & Wound Repair Unit.”
Visit www.sanofi-aventis.us for more information.
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