By Ruthie Edelstein, NoCamels -
A hunch by two respected Israeli biochemists, one a Nobel laureate, about a molecule found in papaya has opened the door for a potential new treatment for cystic fibrosis (CF) in children.
Israeli biotech startup ODE Pharma trusted in the hunch and used it to create a unique therapy, which it says is both affordable and safe, to help children suffering from the genetic disease.
CF is caused by a defective gene that makes the body produce thick and sticky mucus in the lungs and other organs, which leads to a variety of serious lifelong issues, including chronic respiratory problems and recurrent lung infections.
There is no cure for the disease, and although a range of treatments have been developed to ease its symptoms, they can be expensive and are limited in scope.
But ODE believes its new therapy can make a difference to young people suffering from the disease and other respiratory disorders, by helping the cells of the affected organs to stay healthy.
“I want people to go from uncomfortable to comfortable,” Assaf Bivas, CEO and co-founder of ODE Pharma, tells NoCamels.
The company focused on cystic fibrosis in children because they believed the papaya molecule could have a real impact on a disease that had hitherto received little attention and was very costly for parents – both in terms of managing CF and the toll it took on the families.
ODE’s aim, Bivas says, is to help the children suffering from cystic fibrosis to experience happiness and health, instead of the company focusing purely on profits.
This is also the overall approach of the Pollen Group, the investment group backing ODE Pharma that Bivas co-founded with entrepreneur Asaf Ofer.
Pollen’s stated mission is to support innovative technologies that make the world a better place and Ofer is also the CEO of Kenaf Ventures, a cleantech startup based in southern Israel that creates a versatile biomaterial from the easily cultivated Kenaf plant.
ODE is utilizing ODE-001, a novel molecule that when inserted into cells makes them more resilient against inflammation and other forms of deterioration.
The molecule was first suggested by the two Israeli biochemists – the late professor Shmuel Ben-Sasson and Nobel laureate Aaron Ciechanover – who approached the Pollen Group in 2020.
Ben-Sasson and Ciechanover had found the naturally occurring molecule in the liquid of the papaya fruit and believed that it could help with cellular aging. This molecule ultimately became known as ODE-001.
It was their impressive scientific backgrounds that made their instincts about the papaya molecule worth pursuing.
“We saw the potential in it,” Bivas explains. “Because it’s novel and nobody had used it before, there was nothing documented on it. So it was just a hunch, and the hunch was very, very strong.”
The Pollen Group swiftly acquired the intellectual property rights to the molecule, completing the IP transfer in just one month.
Then they first tested the molecule in a lab, inserting it into the epithelial tissue (a thin protective layer covering all the surfaces of the body) of healthy cells found in both the lungs and the intestine.
Bivas says the team was thrilled to learn that ODE-001 did indeed extend the life of the healthy cells by almost 50 percent. And when they moved to test inflamed cells, the team found that it was just as – if not more – effective.
“We found that [the molecule] is a very, very strong anti-inflammatory agent that… rehabilitates the cell itself,” says Bivas. “We had something.”
A clinical trial conducted in association with one of Israel’s four health care providers further yielded “very good results,” he says.
As much of ODE’s studies involving the molecule took place at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, the company also provided pills containing ODE-001 to 13 COVID patients in the intensive care unit at a hospital in northern Israel.
And those patients, Bivas says, were released from hospital within five days of taking the pills – half the time of the other COVID patients in intensive care who had declined the tablets.
“This result was more than amazing. We understood that we have something here that is very safe,” Bivas says.
Newly emerged from stealth, ODE Pharma has so far raised $1.5 million in funding and is in the process of raising another $5 million.
It plans to start clinical trials for ODE-001 as a treatment for cystic fibrosis in children next year, with the aim of seeking orphan drug designation from the US Food and Drug Administration, a classification that applies to the development of novel treatments for rare diseases in the US.
And with signs that ODE-001 helps mitigate damage from COVID and helps cells to fight inflammation, ODE has plans to release the molecule as a supplement in the next year.
The company is working with Catalent, a multinational biotech manufacturer based in New Jersey, to mass produce the supplement.
“It’s very, very safe and affordable, and scaling up is a big possibility,” Bivas says.
