Aarhus Biotech Company takes up the fight against neuromuscular diseases
NMD Pharma is part of a budding Aarhus biotech environment which has its roots in a long scientific tradition at Aarhus University, helpful key people and good partnerships with Aarhus University Hospital.
Editor: John Bo Northroup
Life Science invited one of the company’s founders, CEO Thomas Holm Pedersen, and its COO Thomas Kongstad Petersen to talk about how a fledgling idea was transformed from an academic project into a growing biotech company with 30 employees.
How it began
The prehistory of NMD Pharma begins about 20 years ago, in a research group at Aarhus University which was working to understand muscle fatigue during physical activity. The research group had discovered that the common perception of lactic acid as the primary cause of muscle fatigue was something of a simplification. In fact, indications had been found that lactic acid could even protect against muscle fatigue. However, the mechanism behind this surprising effect remained unknown.
Thomas Holm Pedersen was at that time a PhD student at Aarhus University, and his project focused precisely on explaining how lactic acid could protect against fatigue. In a close collaboration between Pedersen, Professor Ole Bækgaard Nielsen and Dr Frank de Paoli, it was found that the protective effect of lactic acid arises because the acid inhibits certain membrane proteins in the muscle fibres which transport chloride ions in and out of the muscle fibres. These channels act like a kind of brake on the formation of electrical signals in the muscles, and the inhibition of these channels thereby makes the muscle fibres more sensitive to control by the nervous system, which means the lactic acid has a protective effect against fatigue.
After elucidating the effect of the lactic acid, a number of studies followed to discover which other factors could regulate the chloride channels in muscles, and Pedersen was behind the development of methods and mathematical models to measure and calculate the channels’ function with a very high time resolution – even while the muscles are active. This led to a series of articles on the basic physiological functioning of the channels, which were published in a number of prominent journals, including Science.
Post Doc at the University of Cambridge
Following the completion of his PhD project and a period as a Post Doc at the University of Cambridge, Thomas Holm Pedersen returned to Aarhus University as an associate professor. He was still researching the chloride channels, but had now shifted his focus away from fatigue in healthy muscles to concentrate more on diseases in which patients experience pronounced muscle fatigue. On the basis of previous studies of the physiology of the chloride channels, the idea had arisen that inhibition of the chloride channels in muscles could form the basis for a new drug to improve communication between the nerves and the muscles. Such a drug would be important for patients with diseases in which the nerve-muscle communication fails and the patients experience chronic muscle weakness and excessive fatigue.
The hunt for the right molecule
Dr Pedersen and Professor Nielsen therefore focused on the interface between the nerves and the muscles and began to undertake some initial conceptual experiments with rats. These experiments supported the fundamental idea that has since driven NMD Pharma: What if we could find molecules that could inhibit the chloride channels and thereby strengthen the communication between the nerves and the muscles?
The small research team from Aarhus University was now joined by Claus Olesen from the same university, and the trio decided to embark on the long, expensive and arduous process of finding a molecule that had both the desired effect and the selectivity and specificity required of a drug. The ambition was to find a way to ameliorate a wide range of disorders including myasthenia gravis, spinal muscular atrophy and age-related muscle weakness (sarcopenia), all of which are characterised by being debilitating.
“These are diseases in which people have difficulty doing the kind of ordinary everyday things that the rest of us take for granted, such as combing their own hair, eating, or even sitting upright,” says Thomas Holm Pedersen.
First important grant from Novo Seeds
The many years of independent research and development received a major boost in 2014 when the three-man team received their first very important grant from Novo Seeds. At the time they were all still working on the project under the auspices of Aarhus University, but by the following year the ideas were ready to hatch and it was time to start their own company. NMD Pharma came into being with an initial four employees, and in 2016 and 2017 the biotech company landed its first investments from Capnova, Lundbeckfonden Emerge and Novo Seeds, for a total of DKK 44 million. In 2018, NMD Pharma managed to raise an additional DKK 280 million from the existing investors Novo Seeds and Lundbeckfonden Emerge, in an investment round that also saw Roche Venture Fund and Dutch Inkef Capital coming on board. This provided an opportunity to considerably strengthen the management, and so Thomas Kongstad Petersen was brought in as COO, while Chief Development Officer Eva Chin was headhunted in San Francisco. NMD Pharma also hired a British CMO, Dr John Hutchison to lead the clinical program. In 2020 NMD Pharma also received a grant of DKK 4.7 million from the state-run Innovation Fund Denmark, and the number of employees has now risen to 30.
Own laboratories and animal facilities
The increased resources have given NMD Pharma the opportunity to establish its own laboratories, including an experimental animal facility and stables totalling 200 m2, with their own affiliated laboratory animal veterinarian. “Having our own laboratories and facilities is essential because our research and methods are exceptional in a global perspective, and at the same time it helps us to further accelerate our innovation and efficiency in the research department,” explains Thomas Kongstad Petersen. It is a unique resource, and the first of its kind for a biotech company in the Aarhus area.
In 2020, NMD Pharma initiated the first clinical trial of its own drug candidate, targeting the treatment of myasthenia gravis, and recent research results have further strengthened NMD Pharma’s conviction that the technology can also be used to treat other neuromuscular diseases. As a result, NMD Pharma is already beginning to seek additional capital with a view to expanding into other indications and developing into a leading biotech company in neuromuscular disease. Many options are being kept open for future financing, including an IPO, if the time and stage of development are appropriate.
Biotech is flourishing in Aarhus
“There’s a thriving biotech environment in Aarhus now,” says Thomas Holm Pedersen. A new biotech company has arrived more or less every year for the past ten years (see box). What is the reason for this, and why Aarhus?
“I think it’s because there are several good preconditions. First of all, the good framework and positive attitude that has been created at Aarhus University to give basic research a chance to develop in this direction. This is important, as it is only via this route that a basic academic idea can obtain sufficient funding and resources to be turned into a product that will benefit patients. Aarhus also presents opportunities for good partnerships with Aarhus University Hospital and other life science stakeholders in association with the hospital. But sometimes it’s also because a few people can make a big and crucial difference. Thomas G. Jensen, for example, who is head of the Department of Biomedicine at AU, has given lecturers and PhD students the space to cultivate their own ideas, which has allowed them to think about starting their own businesses. It’s very important to have key people like that in central positions, as this can pave the way for development, innovative thinking and practical applications of the science,” emphasises Thomas Holm Pedersen.
“Having said that, we have a general need for the public sector to become even better at providing assistance – for example in connection with newly-arrived foreign employees, where we in the companies need help with everything from internships and researcher tax schemes to health insurance certificates, civil registration numbers, and all the other things that are part of life in a society like Denmark.”
Able to help each other
But back to biotech, and Aarhus. It is a huge task to assemble the right team in a young biotech company, but the more companies in the industry that are gathered in the same place, the greater the critical mass will be, and the easier it is to recruit. Thomas Kongstad Petersen also points out that for highly specialised functions, it is a clear advantage for biotech companies to join forces and share positions and facilities in the area.
Both of the Thomases find that the pioneering spirit that characterises Aarhus biotech makes the companies very much inclined to help each other:
“I hope that our growth and the progress of the other biotech companies can get the snowball rolling and pave the way for others, and also demonstrate to the local community and municipality that we have a growing and tangible number of employees and good taxpayers who are contributing to the community,” concludes Thomas Holm Pedersen.
Facts:
Biotech in Aarhus is gaining ground
Year of foundation in parentheses: iSD (2007), NMD Pharma (2015), Initiator Pharma (2016), Draupnir.bio (2017), STipe Therapeutics (2018), Muna Therapeutics (2020), Teitur Trophics (2020).
Two of the biotech companies, STipe Therapeutics and Draupnier Bio, have since managed to attract Series A financing of DKK 149 million and DKK 225 million, respectively. The biotech companies are typically located in association with Aarhus University.
About NMD Pharma
NMD Pharma was founded in 2015 by researchers from Aarhus University. The company has grown from a small handful of employees to a staff of almost 30. NMD Pharma has its offices close to Aarhus University Hospital in the northern part of Aarhus.
You can find out more at: linkedin.com/company/nmdpharma