Boulder BioScience Lead Indications 

Acute Ischemic Stroke (AIS)

Ischemic stroke is caused by intravascular thrombus formation obstructing cerebral blood flow. AIS affects millions of people every year with increasing incidence as populations age. Despite recent improved prophylactic and therapeutic intervention with endovascular thrombectomy, ischemic stroke is still a major cause of death and disability worldwide. Currently, the only approved therapeutic for AIS is intravenously administered recombinant tissue Plasminogen Activator (tPA). Following AIS, tPA breaks down fibers of thrombus fibrin to partially restore blood flow. There is no approved therapy to arrest thrombus formation or to inhibit the acquisition of fibrin in occluding thrombi. Similarly, there is no approved drug to protect brain tissue from lack of blood flow and oxygen following AIS and no drug available to limit the damaging effects of infiltrating neutrophils and neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs).

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) results from any external force impacting the head, from non-impact blast waves, or from other deceleration injury. TBIs are the most common cause of physical disability and cognitive impairment in young people and lack any approved therapy.  There are an estimated 2.5 million head injuries evaluated in ER’s annually in the United States. The process of acute and ongoing brain damage immediately following the injury is complex involves neuroinflammation, loss of integrity of the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB), and subsequent cognitive deficits.  Even mild TBI is now acknowledged as a precursor to future neurodegeneration including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease. There is an urgent unmet need for a proactive treatment to promote early functional recovery and to prevent long-term neuropsychiatric complications from TBIs.

 

Boulder BioScience (BBL) has developed API candidates for brain injury. As a non-toxic brain penetrant small molecule, the API fills an unmet need for an inhibitor of neuroinflammation. Used alone or in conjunction with currently approved tPA and endovascular thrombectomy, the drug candidates can improve patient functional outcome in AIS. When used alone in TBI the drug candidates can limit injury and improve outcome.