About Argenica Therapeutics
Commercialising the novel neuroprotective therapeutic ARG-007 to reduce the damaging effects of stroke and other acute CNS injuries
Company Overview
Argenica Therapeutics was incorporated on 20 November 2019 as a proprietary Australian company to undertake the development and commercialisation of a novel drug based on the pioneering work of Professor Bruno Meloni and Clinical Professor Neville Knuckey at the University of Western Australia (UWA) and the Perron Institute for Neurological and Translational Science (Perron Institute). The drug, known as ARG-007, a cationic, arginine rich peptide, has neuroprotective properties that has the potential to offer protection to the brain following stroke and other acute central nervous system injuries. In June 2021, the Company listed on the ASX, raising the necessary funds to allow Argenica to develop a best in class neuroprotective therapeutic.
Drug development is tightly regulated and involves the sequential demonstration of both safety and efficacy of compounds. Argenica is undertaking the required Drug Research and Development Process to progress through to commercialisation. The Company has recently received ethics approval to commence the phase 1 clinical trial of ARG-007 in healthy participants. Dosing of the first cohort of volunteers is expected to commence in October 2022.
Our Mission
There is currently a large unmet need for a safe, early intervention therapeutic that provides protection to brain cells immediately following a stroke, until the underlying cause of stroke can be diagnosed and alleviated.
It is our mission to provide a solution for this unmet need. Our aim is for ARG-007 to be administered by first responders in the field to provide neuroprotective treatment prior to a patient’s arrival at the hospital which will result in improved patient outcomes.
Board & Management
Mr Geoff Pocock has over 20 years’ experience in commercialisation, corporate finance and strategy, and has specialised in the commercialisation and funding of early stage research projects from universities, and taking spin out companies to successful ASX listings. Geoff has served on the Board of a number of listed and unlisted companies, and he is currently a non Executive Director of EMVision Medical Devices Ltd (ASX:EMV). He is also the founder and former Managing Director of Hazer Group Limited (ASX: HZR), which was spun out of The University of Western Australia in 2010 and listed on ASX in 2015. Geoff has tertiary qualifications in Chemistry, Law and Applied Finance and is a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Ms Liddy McCall co-founded early stage venture fund, Yuuwa Capital LP and has over 20 years’ experience as a founder, investor and in management of early stage startups. Her prior experience includes co-founder of iCeutica Inc group, Dimerix Limited (ASX:DXB) and Argus Biomedical Pty Ltd.Previously, Ms McCall was an Associate Director, Macquarie Bank focusing on mergers and acquisitions. Ms McCall has been admitted as a barrister and solicitor in various Australian jurisdictions. Ms McCall is on the Board of various companies including ASX listed AdAlta Limited (ASX:1AD), and unlisted companies, The Tailor Made Spirits Company Limited and SuperTrans Medical Limited.
Mr Terry Budge was a Director of Aspen Group Limited from 6 May 2005 to 23 November 2012. He was also Chancellor of Murdoch University from 2006 to 2013 (appointed to Senate 1 June 2004). Mr Budgeholds a Bachelor of Economics from Monash University and is a Graduate of the Advanced ManagementProgram from Harvard Business School. He is also a Graduate and Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Senior Fellow of FINSIA. He is currently a non-executive director and Chairman of the Audit Committee of Westoz Investment Company Ltd (ASX:WIC).
Dr Liz Dallimore is a research & development, innovation and commercialisation specialist with over 20 years’ experience across Australia and the UK. Prior to joining Argenica Therapeutics, Dr Dallimore was the Director of the WA Data Science Innovation Hub, tasked with working across WA businesses to establish innovative data science projects. Dr Dallimore has also held senior roles in management consulting across Australia, most recently as KPMG’s National Director of Research Engagement and Commercialisation. Prior to this she held senior roles with Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Dr Dallimore is a co-founder of medical device company Inspiring Holdings, sits on the AusBiotech WA Committee and is a non-executive Director of NERA, a Federal Government Growth Centre. Dr Dallimore has a PhD in Neuroscience jointly completed at Oxford University and the University of Western Australia and has worked as a neuroscientist at the Australian Neuromuscular Research Institute (now Perron Institute). In 2020, Dr Dallimore was recognised as one of Western Australia’s Top Women in Tech.
Dr Samantha South has over 13 years’ experience in technology transfer and commercialisation within the medtech / biotech sector,as Senior Commercialisation Officer (Life Sciences) in the Research Development & Innovation Office at UWA and at the University of Queensland (UQ), and Queensland University of Technology (QUTBluebox). Dr South has extensive background in CNS research at Weill Medical College at Cornell University (NY), UQ and The Garvan Institute. She was also the Preclinical Manager at TetraQ, a preclinical contract organisation, specialising in central nervous system animal models.
Dr South was the UWA Director on UWA spin-out companies, MiReven Pty Ltd, Eridan Technologies Pty Ltd and OncoRes Medical Pty Ltd and is currently a Director of Rage Biotech Pty Ltd. Dr South is also the WA Ausbiotech Committee Chair and member of the Ausmedtech National Advisory Group and SBE LifeSciences Council.
Prof. Meloni is the head of stroke laboratory research at UWA and the Perron Institute.
Prof. Meloni has over 25 years’ experience as a research scientist, the last 20 in the field of stroke/cerebral ischaemia. His research in the stroke/cerebral ischaemia field has focussed on understanding the mechanisms associated with ischaemic brain injury, the identification of potential neuroprotective targets and the development of new therapies. Prof. Meloni has experience with designing preclinical stroke trials, and the use of peptides as neuroprotective agents.
Ms Waldon has diverse accounting, capital markets and corporate governance experience in Australia and the UK and is currently Company Secretary of EMVision Medical Devices Ltd (ASX:EMV) and a number of unlisted companies. Ms Waldon was Company Secretary of Hazer Group Limited (ASX: HZR). Ms Waldon was a director of Moko Social Media Ltd (ASX:MKB) when voluntary administrators were appointed to the company on 31 May 2017.
Dr Meghan Thomas has over 15 years experience in the biotechnology sector spanning basic
research, clinical trial design and oversight, regulatory pathways, and product development.
She has a PhD in Neuroscience jointly completed at Cambridge University UK and the
University of Western Australia.
Prior to joining Argenica, Dr Thomas was the Vice-President of Clinical Programs and
Operations at Zelira Therapeutics. Whilst at Zelira, Dr Thomas was responsible for the
successful completion of multiple clinical trials validating the role of medicinal cannabis as
well as the development of commercialisation and intellectual property strategies. Dr
Thomas founded and directed a research centre aimed at coordinating a holistic clinically-
driven approach to Parkinson’s research focused on curing, halting or reversing Parkinson’s
symptoms. In her clinical trial regulatory role Dr Thomas oversaw a team that implemented
and ran a centralised research ethics and governance system across a state-wide public
health service that included two tertiary hospitals and five general hospitals.
Dr Thomas has a proven track record in project management, stakeholder engagement and
high quality research and clinical trial outcomes that directly impact patient populations.
Dr Adam Edwards is a Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Perron Institute for Neurological and Translational Science, the Western Australian Department of Health and the University of Western Australia. Adam has over 9 years of experience in neuroprotective research, completing his PhD in 2019 where he demonstrated the effectiveness of arginine-rich peptides to treat hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy. Adam’s research interests include neuroprotection, complex preclinical models of neonatal brain injury and neuroimaging. Adam also has 3 years of Regulatory Affairs experience in both Australian and United States jurisdictions and has a keen interest in improving safety outcomes and clinical trial design for neonates.
Clinical Advisory Committee
Professor David Blacker is an acute stroke clinician/neurologist who has previous experience initiating neuroprotection clinical stroke trials in Western Australia and being the local Principal Investigator of a number of national and international acute and secondary prevention stroke studies. Prof. Blacker is thePerron Institute Medical Director and consultant neurologist and stroke physician.
Professor Geoffrey Donnan AO is a Professor of Neurology at The University of Melbourne and former Director of The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health. His research interest is clinical stroke management. He was co-founder, with Prof. Stephen Davis, of the Australian Stroke Trials Network (ASTN) within which there have been numerous investigator driven and other stroke trials. The first of these was the Australian Streptokinase Trial (ASK). He has since been involved in numerous clinical trials of therapy as Chair, Co-chair or Steering Committee member. These include ECASSII and more recently EPITHET. He is currently Co-chair of the EXTEND group of trials, including the recently published EXTEND IAtrial of thrombectomy in acute ischaemic stroke. The EXTEND trial itself, in which thrombolysis was safely and effectively given out to 9 hours, was also recently published, again with Prof. Davis. He was a co-founder of Neurosciences Trials Australia and has a major interest in the imaging of the ischaemic penumbra. The interface between basic sciences and clinical stroke medicine has been a research focus and, in collaboration with Messrs Malcolm Macleod and David Howells, has adapted the meta-analysis technique to assess therapies in animal stroke models. He was Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Stroke and is Past President of the World Stroke Organization. In 2012 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for his distinguished service to neurology and research contributions and is the recipient of a number of international awards including the American Stroke Association William Feinberg Award (2007), the World Stroke Organization Leadership Award (2012), Karolinska Institute Award (2012) and Wepfer Award Of the European Stroke Congress for excellence in stroke research (2014).
Assoc. Prof. Bailey is Perth based, completing his medical degree at the University of Western Australia in 1992, and becoming a Fellow of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine in 2000. He completed a Biochemistry / Physiology laboratory PhD in 2007 – investigating the functional and structural characteristics of Australian jellyfish venom. More recently Assoc. Assoc. Prof. Bailey’s research focus has been in the areas of out of hospital cardiac arrest, anaphylaxis, emergency department systems and trauma – with 29 papers published in the scientific literature since 2015. In early 2020, Assoc. Prof. Bailey successfully completed the AICD’s Company Directors course. Assoc. Prof. Paul Bailey was previously the Medical Director for St John Ambulance Western Australia. Assoc. Prof. Bailey and his team are active participants in the WA Stroke Advisory Group – which has transformed the clinical approach to stroke patients in the prehospital environment in WA.
Dr Tim Phillips is an Interventional Neuroradiologist with 15 years’ experience, currently working at the Neurological Intervention and Imaging Service of Western Australia (NIIS WA) and the Perth Children’s Hospital. Prior to returning to Perth he undertook post-specialist fellowship training at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, The Royal London Hospital, Queens Hospital Romford, The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, and Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Dr Saver is Professor and Senior Associate Vice-Chari of Neurology at UCLA, and Director of the UCLA Comprehensive Stroke Centre. He trained at Harvard Medical School, the Harvard-Longwood Neurology Training Program (neurology), the University of Iowa (neurobehavior), and Brown (vascular neurology). Dr Saver’s research interests are in acute stroke treatment, stroke prevention, neuroimaging, clinical trial design, and neurocognition consequences of stroke. He has served as the principal investigator on a number of key stroke trials, including the Global PI for the SWIFT PRIME trial.
Development Partners
Argenica is undertaking the development and commercialisation of ARG-007 developed by world-leading researchers at UWA and the Perron Institute.
Development of the underlying technology has progressed over the last 6 years from initial concept and proof-of-concept experiments through pre-clinical research. Argenica is now poised to begin the human testing phase of product development for its initial target application of acute ischaemic stroke. Our ongoing partnerships with UWA and the Perron Institute will provide continuing research and pipeline development.
