Company Profile
Apath is a privately held technology licensing company engaged in the commercial application of virology and viral genetics to assist pharmaceutical companies in discovering and developing therapeutic products for the treatment of viral infections. The current focus of Apath is on hepatitis C virus (HCV). The company also works with other RNA viruses that are human pathogens, including Influenza, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and Hemorrhagic Fever Viruses.
The worldwide market for antiviral drugs is estimated to be approximately $20 billion and it is expected to grow rapidly as new therapies become available. In 1990 there were just five licensed antiviral drugs; today there are more than sixty. Most of these drugs, however, are for treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and various herpesviruses. Most human viruses are RNA viruses. There is an urgent need for drugs to treat the numerous viral diseases caused by RNA viruses for which limited or no therapeutic options are currently available. While virtually all major pharmaceutical companies have antiviral discovery programs for HIV and HCV, very limited drug discovery activity is being devoted to other viral pathogens.
Apath was founded in St. Louis, Missouri, by Charles M. Rice, Ph.D., then Professor of Molecular Microbiology at Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Rice and key Apath employees have a proven track record and comprehensive expertise in virology and molecular biology. Apath has key patent estates, proprietary know-how, and license agreements related to hepatitis C virus (HCV) and other important human viral pathogens including methods to detect viruses. Our expertise, proprietary tools and relationships with leading virologists enable us to provide researchers with the tools that they need to tap into the antiviral drug market.
Mannagement Team
Charles M. Rice, Ph.D. - Founder and
Managing Director
Dr. Rice is the Maurice R. and Corinne P. Greenberg Professor of the Laboratory of Virology and Infectious Disease at The Rockefeller University in New York and the Scientific and Executive Director of the Tri-Institutional Center for the Study of Hepatitis C. He was a member of the faculty at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis from 1986 to 2000 as a Professor of Molecular Microbiology. Dr. Rice received his B.A. in Zoology from the University of California in 1974, and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1981. Dr. Rice is an expert in RNA viruses and his group in New York is among the world's leaders in the molecular biology of hepatitis C virus. Dr. Rice has published over two hundred original research publications in peer-reviewed journals and numerous review articles and book chapters. Dr. Rice is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and a consultant or board member of multiple pharmaceutical companies. He holds numerous U.S. and Global patents related to hepatitis C virus molecular biology.
Robert M. Roth - Vice President, Strategic Operations
Mr. Roth joined Apath,LLC in 1999. He has over
fourteen years of experience in developing high throughput screening systems, integrated robotics platforms and laboratory management systems with successful biotechnology companies, including Genome Systems, Incyte Genomics and Apath,LLC.
He received his Bachelors of Science, in Biochemistry,
and a Masters of Science, in Health Sciences from Washington University in Saint Louis.
Mr. Roth holds multiple U.S. and Global patents related
to inventions in the field of antiviral drug discovery.
Company History
October 29, 1997
Apath LLC founded in St. Louis, Missouri
September 30, 2001
Apath, LLC received a 2 year, $750,000, grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases under the Small Business Innovation Research Program. The grant helped fund Apath studies of a potential new test for quantitating hepatitis C virus in the blood of infected
patients.
January 3, 2002
Apath, LLC moved to the Nidus Center for Scientific Enterprise on January 3, 2002.
May 2002
Apath, LLC, was chosen to be among a select group of Missouri companies seeking venture capital to present at the 2002 InvestMidwest Venture Capital Forum held at the Ritz Carlton in Clayton, MO.
August 1, 2002
Apath, LLC received a 6 month, $100,000, Phase I Grant from the Small Business Innovation Research Program from the National Institutes of Health’s Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for the proposal titled “Indicator cells for antiviral screening for filoviruses”.
August, 15, 2002
Apath, LLC received a two year, $750,000, Phase II Grant from the Small Business Innovation Research Program from the National Institutes of Health’s Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for the proposal titled “Antiviral Screening Assays Based on HCV Replicons”.
September 15, 2002
Apath, LLC received a two year, $375,000, Grant from the National Institutes of Health’s Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for the proposal titled “Screening for antivirals against flaviviruses”.
September 26, 2002
Apath, LLC was selected as one of the top 50 technology companies in the St. Louis region. Each year since 1996, the RCGA and Deloitte & Touche have presented the St. Louis Regional Technology Fast 50 Awards to salute the region’s 50 fastest-growing high tech companies.
September 30, 2002
Apath, LLC received a $1,409,000 subcontract from Washington University in St. Louis as part of a National Institutes of Health sponsored collaborative project between Apath and Dr. Michael Diamond of Washington University School of Medicine. Apath utilized subgenomic West Nile Virus (WNV) replicons as a screening tool for identifying small molecule inhibitors of WNV replication.
January 23, 2003
Apath entered a collaboration with BioProspect Limited (West Perth, Australia) to discover novel compounds that could lead to treatments for human viral diseases. Under the agreement Apath had access to BioProspect’s unique Natural Plant Extract Library and screened those extracts using their proprietary screening platform. BioProspect then used its expertise in natural product chemistry to identify any biologically active compounds.
April 30, 2003
Apath, LLC was selected as one of nine finalists of the St. Louis Business Journal Technology Awards for 2003. A panel of judges, consisting of scientists and technology experts from Washington University, Saint Louis University and other members of the scientific community, considered impact, scope, complexity and innovation of the developed technology as criteria to select the winners from over 70 nominations.
April 30, 2003
Apath, LLC received a two year, $750,000, Phase II Grant from the Small Business Innovation Research Program from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for the proposal titled “Screening for anti-RSV compounds with minigenome indicators cells”.
May 15, 2003
Apath, LLC received a six month, $100,000, Phase I Grant from the Small Business Innovation Research Program from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for the proposal titled “Construction of a Respiratory Syncytial Virus replicon”.
September 1, 2003
Apath, LLC received a six month, $100,000, Phase I Grant from the Small Business Innovation Research Program from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for the proposal titled “Multiplexed Gene Assays by Microtiter Plate Microarrays”.
January 29, 2004
Apath, LLC was selected as a recipient of a technology award from Tripos, Inc. (Nasdaq: TRPS), a leading provider of drug discovery chemistry and informatics products. Apath was the BioBelt-region recipient of the Hits-to-Leads program, which granted Apath access to compounds and software for rapid drug discovery.
February 1, 2004
Apath, LLC received a $55,000 Developmental Project Grant from the Midwest Regional Center of Excellence in Biodefense
and Emerging Infectious Diseases at
Washington University. The project
title was “Peptide inhibitors of
VP30 of Ebola virus”.
March 1, 2004
Apath, LLC received a two year, $750,000, Phase II Grant from the Small Business Innovation Research Program from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for the proposal titled “Indicator cells for antiviral screening for filoviruses”.
March, 2004
Apath, LLC received a three year $799,702 combined Phase I/Phase II (Fast Track) award from the Small Business Innovation Research Program from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
for the proposal titled “Transgenic
indicator cells for influenza
virus”.
July 1, 2004
Apath, LLC received a two year, $958,581, Phase I Grant from the Small Business Innovation Research Program from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health for the proposal titled “Replicon-based screening for inhibitors of alphaviruses”.
July 15, 2004
Apath, LLC received a two year, $741,038, Phase I Grant from the Small Business Innovation Research Program from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health for the proposal titled “Molecular tools for Bunyavirus
antiviral screening”.
November 18, 2004
Apath, LLC and Nucleonics, Inc. entered into a licensing agreement in which Nucleonics received a non-exclusive license to Apath's patented technology related to the 3' non-translated region of the Hepatitis C viral genome, which Nucleonics used as a target in its development of an expressed RNAi
therapeutic against Hepatitis C.
November, 2004
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recognized the research Apath
did to promote improved diagnosis of
influenza virus infection.
November, 2004
Apath was selected to participate in the NIH Commercialization Assistance Program (NIH-CAP). This program was aimed at helping commercialize products, services, or technology, resulting from the SBIR research grants and contracts awarded to companies.
February, 2005
Apath, LLC received an eighteen month, $1,350,000 Grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
of the National Institutes of Health
for the proposal titled
"Therapeutics for Ebola virus".
May, 2005
Apath, LLC received a ten month, $100,000 contract from the Department of Defense for the project titled "Filovirus drug discovery using novel combinations of approved drugs ".
September, 2005
A team of researchers led by Apath’s founder at The Rockefeller University produced for the first time an infectious form of the hepatitis C virus (HCV)
in laboratory cultures of human
cells.
September, 2005
Apath founder, Dr. Charles M. Rice
was elected to the National Academy
of Sciences. The National Academy of
Sciences announced the election of
72 new members and 18 foreign
associates from 14 countries in
recognition of their distinguished
and continuing achievements in
original research. Election to
membership in the Academy is
considered one of the highest honors
that can be accorded a U.S.
scientist or engineer.
March, 2006
Apath, LLC received a 2 year, $750,000 Phase II contract from the Department of Defense for the project titled "Filovirus drug discovery using novel combinations of approved drugs".
September, 2007
Apath, LLC received a 3 year, $2.1 million dollar award from the National Institutes of Health for the project titled “Developing small molecule therapeutics for West Nile virus (WNV), a member of the Flaviviridae family.
September, 2007
Apath, LLC received a 6 month, $100,713 award from the National Institutes of Health for the project titled “The in vitro hepatitis C virus infection system as a drug discovery tool".
April, 2008
Apath, LLC completed an exclusive agreement with Toray Industries, Inc in order to provide non-exclusive sublicenses for HCV JFH-1 technology.
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