In March 2008, Ercole Biotech Inc was acquired by another SBIR firm, AVI BioPharma, Inc. The previous year the two firms had collaborated seeking to create therapeutics for the genetic disorders Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and beta thalassemia. That came on the heels of a few other working interactions. Ercole Biotech, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel oligonucleotide drugs that achieve their therapeutic effect by modulating alternative splicing. Ercoleâs Splice Switching Drugs (SSDs) represent a new class of drug that is rationally designed, can up-regulate or down-regulate protein activity, has predictable pharmacokinetics and toxicology, and already has been manufactured under GMP. Furthermore, SSDs have been proven to be effective at regulating gene expression in a therapeutically relevant manner in numerous models of human disease. Ercoleâs patent portfolio of 71 issued patents protects the development of our SSDs. The SSDs will address a wide range of important diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular and inflammatory disorders, and inherited genetic disea
