Aursos, Inc.

The Company

Our Background

Aursos (pronounced R-sos) was founded in March of 2007. The Company has licensed technology developed at Michigan Technological University in the laboratory of Dr. Seth Donahue on the family of naturally-occurring parathyroid Hormone (PTH) proteins found in the black bear (Ursus americanus). The therapeutic mission of the company is to develop black bear PTH (BB-PTH) 1-34 for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. The Company may also seek orphan drug status for BB-PTH 1-34 for patients who are suffering from osteoporosis due to chronic immobilization, which is currently not indicated for Forteo®. Alternatively, the Company will evaluate the potential for development of other constructs of BB-PTH for the same types of indications (i.e., prevention and treatment of osteoporosis and chronic immobilization).

The Company was established under the guidance of The Apjohn Group, LLC, which is a business accelerator, established in 2001 and based in Kalamazoo, MI. The Apjohn Group brings together invaluable resources of management talent and angel/seed financing to enhance start-up activities of promising new technologies.

The Osteoporosis Market

With the increasing population of "baby boomers" moving into retirement age, the pharmaceutical osteoporosis market is projected to dramatically increase. The forecast for this market is US$8-10 billion by 2010 and nearly US$14 billion by 2014, with approximately 80% of sales being derived in the US. There is a substantial market opportunity for a new anabolic osteoporosis drug that may out perform current pharmaceutical treatments. Currently, only one human anabolic treatment is commercially available for the treatment and prevention of osteoporosis (recombinant human PTH 1-34, teriparatide/Forteo®). Forteo® has worldwide sales of $511 million (70% from the US market) with a growth rate of 21% (January - September of 2007) and has patent coverage through August 2019.

There are also disuse conditions (chronically immobilized) that contribute to secondary osteoporosis, such as muscular dystrophy, stroke, and/or spinal cord injury that are potential areas of interest. These indications are a much smaller market than primary osteoporosis but have the advantage of potentially obtaining "fast track" orphan drug status.