Water-based nanotechnology

Eran Gabbai, CEO and President of Do-Coop Technologies, explains the benefits of a new water-based nanotechnology.

Q1: What is Neowater?
Neowater is a novel and proprietary water-based nanotechnology developed by Do-Coop Technologies Ltd, a private intellectual property company based in Israel. Neowater is distinguished from regular water by a clear shift in its physical and chemical properties, and possesses a structure that is remarkably stable under both extreme and standard conditions. It can be utilized in various applications within the pharmaceutical and biotech industry.

Q2: How can the pharma industry benefit from this technology?
Neowater offers better bioavailability, efficacy, stability, sustained release, and toxicity reduction of the formulation. With Do-Coop’s technology, pharmaceutical companies will achieve new and extended IP, an enhanced pipeline, significant cost reduction, and faster time to market by allowing researchers to use the same delivery system from in vitro to in vivo research, avoiding a key factor in late-stage failure. It also provides better predictability regarding success or failure of an active pharmaceutical ingredient in vivo.

Finally, the pharma industry has a significant number of compounds languishing in the development chain because of their inability to move from in vitro to in vivo due to obstacles such as toxicity, efficacy, formulation difficulties, and so on. Neowater as a non-toxic drug delivery agent can significantly enhance their return to the development cycle

Biotech companies can benefit from enhanced protein stability, cell growth, clonability, and secretion by using Neowater-based media.

Do-Coop's business model is licensing Neowater for various applications via technology transfer.

Q3: Can you tell us more about the water-based nanotechnology?
The unique organization of the water molecules in Neowater is derived from interaction among the water, carbon dioxide and a suspended minute amount of nanoparticles arranged in clusters.

Neowater post-production composition is distinct from regular water and closely resembles naturally occurring water in biological organisms. The CO2 concentration is 10 to 100 fold higher, and the enlarged surface area, due to the nanoparticles, provides structure in the liquid phase. These characteristics result in an enhanced ability to disperse both hydrophobic and hydrophilic compounds while simultaneously heightening bioavailability, efficacy and stability.

Q4: The company spent more than 10 years developing Neowater. What were the main developmental hurdles?
In addition to the development of this revolutionary technology and the basic research conducted in the first years to understand the vast added value that Neowater possesses, the biggest hurdle was trying to change the paradigm of water in the life sciences industry

The science of water is subject to conflicting theories. The very structure of water, as an open system and without equilibrium, makes it an extremely controversial field. Scientists did not have a complete understanding as to why intracellular water is different to other water forms.

Do-Coop has been working to educate the market about the significant difference between intracellular water and “bulk” water being used by the pharma industry.

Q5: How crucial do you think innovative technology — such as nanotechnology — is to the future of pharma and biopharm?
Nanotechnology is in the early stages of adoption in pharma/biotechand has already been implemented successfully in more than 30 commercialized drugs, such as Abraxane, Docetaxel, and TriCor.

According to Global Data, if we only look at only one niche in Nanotechnology in 2007, Drug Delivery Systems (DDS), the market was approximately $3.4 billion. If nanotechnology is completely adopted, the market is expected to be $216 billion by 2015, with a compound annual growth rate of 68.4%

Q6: What obstacles are blocking the greater use of nanotechnology in the pharma/biopharm industries?
Again, according to Global Data, the barriers and challenges for the Nanotechnology industry include:

• Uncertainty of ROI on new technology investments is inhibiting the companies from adopting nano-enabled technologies.
• Awareness is relatively low amongst industry stakeholders with regards to the potential of nanotechnology applications in pharma/biotech R&D. If the awareness does not increase, it could have a potential impact on growth of nanotechnology in pharma/biotech industry.
• Nanotechnology has drawn severe criticism from health advocacy groups, environmentalists and other non-government organizations due to hypothetical safety concerns.

Q7: How would you categorize Do-Coop's business value for the pharma industry?
Neowater works unlike any other drug delivery system. Because Neowater is generic, it provides the optimal vehicle for many compounds with only minimal customization. Companies can register new IP with existing APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients), based on an extended therapeutic window. Additionally, Neowater was submitted to the FDA for compound integration without needing a separate toxicity control.

Companies using Neowater-based compounds will see faster, more cost-effective progression. With a single delivery vehicle, efficient use of R&D capital rises, as do the discoveries that can become viable. Neowater also provides better hydration and bioavailability in formulations, greater control in sustained-release formulas, and long-term stability in stored products.

Q8: What successes does Do-Coop have so far?
Do-Coop recently partnered with Champions Biotechnology, which is developing oncology drugs. They were hunting everywhere for a solubilizer for SG410, their Benzoylphenylurea (BPU) sulfur analog. It was a "brick" compound with no therapeutic window at all. Using Neowater, Do-Coop enabled a liquid formulation that can be taken for in-vivo studies, with at least the same activity as with DMSO. Champions will have early Biomerk Tumorgraft results for Neowater-based SG410 by late 2009.

As an example of using existing API, we connected a third party with a reformulated cyclosporine (based on Neowater) as an immuno-suppressive agent for eye treatment. As you know, Allergan owns the IP for cyclosporine eye drops. But because Neowater extends its therapeutic window with a formulation that doesn't intrude upon Allergan's IP, new IP could be created.

Incidentally, the cyclosporine was originally an in-house POC. However, we are not a drug producer. We license Neowater technology, merging Neowater IP with our customers' IP. Our business model is receipt of royalties and milestone payments only. The pharma companies reap the other rewards.

www.docoop.com