Inhibit cell death to save the myocardium and the patient's life during a heart attack
Created in September 2023 in Montpellier, ApoRepair capitalizes on a family of patents from the CNRS in Montpellier. It offers treatment against ischemia-reperfusion injury in myocardial infarction.
The company is Winner of Invest in Biomed 2023, the annual healthtech meeting in the South of France initiated by EuroBiomed, the health competitiveness cluster for the South and Occitanie regions.
Among cardiovascular diseases, acute myocardial infarction (MI) represents the leading cause of death worldwide with one case every 45 seconds in Europe.
The management of a patient with an MI consists of reopening the occluded artery as quickly as possible according to international cardiology recommendations. However, undesirable side effects accompany this procedure, inducing specific lesions called reperfusion lesions which weaken the ischemic cardiac tissue. No treatment can inhibit the undesirable effects of cardiac muscle reperfusion, generating cell death, and minimizing the beneficial effects on infarct size and patient survival.
Despite this essential care to save the patient, 10-30% of patients die immediately or in the first year post-infarction and 25-50% of survivors develop heart failure, generating additional societal costs.
ApoRepair is developing therapeutic peptides capable of reducing the size of the infarct (50% in the mouse model) when administered at the time of reopening of the coronary artery (reperfusion). This treatment protects the heart in the long term as shown in mice at 6 months (equivalent to 22 years in humans). The mechanism of action has been fully described by studying cell death and survival pathways. These cardioprotective peptides can be administered in addition to reperfusion therapy, to any patient presenting an acute phase of MI, to reduce the size of the infarct, the morbidity and mortality rates and the associated societal costs.
WALK
The myocardial infarction market represents 9.14 million cases/year worldwide in 2019, including 1.8 million cases/year in the US and 120,000 cases/year in France, with a growing market trend due to the diabetes/obesity epidemic, COVID-19 and an aging population. The myocardial infarction treatment market is valued at $1,524.5 Mn in 2020 and is expected to reach $2,353.5 Mn in 2027 with a CAGR of 6.4% over the forecast period. Other indications such as stroke or organ transplantation are also considered.
ApoRepair has around ten employees.