Vicus Therapeutics is a privately-held
biopharmaceutical company focused on developing oncology supportive care drug products
for serious unmet medical needs. Each product candidate is a novel combination and
dosing regimen of two generic drugs with known safety profiles. The constituent
drugs and dosing regimens are chosen based on the results of Vicus’ predictive
disease models and the company’s understanding of the body’s maladaptive
response to cancer and its treatment.
Disease as Maladaptive Regulation
Central to Vicus understanding of the disease is the view that a healthy state is a
balance of inflows and outflows. The body is optimally designed to maintain a
set of conditions that maintain this balance using feedback loops to regulate
processes into a normal range when disease/stress pushes a process in one
direction or another. The feedback loops provide adequate regulation within a
certain range. However, when progressing into the early stages of disease, these
adjustments exceed the adaptive range, and the metabolic/physiological response
of the organism to restore balance actually exacerbates the imbalance of inflows
and outflows. This cycle of progressing disease and maladaptive regulation leads
to a ‘vicus’, a vicious circle, and a development of a full blown disease state.
Therapy Discovery Approach
Vicus uses this framework to re-interpret the literature, identify the maladaptive
regulation, identify the predictive animal models and analogous human disease
and assess data of constituent drug candidates’ impact on the disease causing
maladaptive regulation
Because most supportive care indications have complex etiologies, we design and
screen synergistic combinations of FDA, EMEA or PMDA- approved drugs that
simultaneously target multiple disease causing pathways. In addition, based
on the extensive information available on approved drugs, we design and screen
the drug combinations to provide safe and synergistic therapy and to complement
chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgical procedures.
Use of Predictive Data and the Similarity Principle
Vicus is the first biopharmaceutical company using relevant data from
predictive animal models and human diseases based on the similarity
principle applied to biological systems. This principle states that
two disease systems are comparable and that data are relevant (predictive)
if the maladaptive regulation (driver of disease) is pair-wise equal.
In the case of cancer cachexia caused by systemic inflammation, Vicus identified animal
models and analogous human diseases with cachexia that are also caused by
systemic inflammation. Vicus used published data from these animal models
and analogous diseases to evaluate drug candidates. Vicus also identified
animal models and human diseases with cachexia that are not caused by systemic
inflammation. Vicus did not use the published data from these models or human
disease because the data are not relevant to cachexia in advanced cancer.
For more information on Vicus predictive disease modeling science see:
