How has Vyant Bio evolved following the merger of Cancer Genetics and StemoniX?

JR: Most impactful, as we were coming through 2021 post the merger, was the transformation of our business strategy. We settled on a viewpoint that suggests we have a leading technology in the use of induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) to be able to do high throughput screening for CNS related applications. We brought in Bob Fremeau as a highly credentialed expert in drug discovery to treat neurological diseases,  then focused on discovering novel and re-purposed therapeutics focused on neurological degenerative and developmental diseases.  

RF: Most drugs fail in the clinic not because of toxicity or safety concerns, but due to a lack of efficacy. This is especially true for CNS drugs where the available animal models have such poor predictive validity.  At Vyant Bio we are reinventing how drugs are discovered for complex neurological and neurodegenerative disorders by applying a human-first approach.  Our CNS drug discovery platform combines human patient-derived organoid models of brain disease, biology at scale, and machine learning to elucidate disease pathophysiology; formulate key therapeutic hypotheses; identify and validate drug targets, cellular assays and clinically translatable biomarkers to guide candidate molecule selection; and to guide patient selection and clinical trial design. The ability to generate human brain organoids from patient-derived hiPSC’s provides an efficient strategy to start the drug discovery process. Indeed, Vyant Bio is capable of generating patient-specific brain disease models that have discreet pathophysiological changes which are amendable to high throughput screening to identify lead molecules that are active in a human setting.

How is Vyant Bio funding its research programs and how far can this funding take the company?

JR: Vyant Bio is building a pipeline and advancing programs with the anticipation that we will be entering into clinical trials by 2023. We finished Q3 2021 with approximately US$23 million cash on our balance sheet, which we raised through multiple equity financings. We currently burn approximately US$1.2 million in cash per month and will be evaluating the capital equity markets moving forward, again raising funds when required.

What trends are currently driving the biotech sector?

JR: There is an emerging trend of using very innovative technologies including data science, AI, and machine learning, combined with strong biological systems.

There is a meaningful amount of private equity and venture capital flowing into the drug discovery sector, while public capital markets continue to evaluate where there are key opportunities. We are optimistic that this dynamic will shift some in the second half in 2022 and that the public capital markets will reopen in terms of more investment coming into the sector. 

Which of Vyant Bio’s services is in highest demand and drives growth for the company?

JR: We are focused more on R&D than on revenue generation. Vyant Bio currently has three active programs of which two are in the rare diseases area. Regarding Rett Syndrome, we created a patient-derived stem-cell model that provides us with a representative disease model to support high-throughput phenotypic screening. We have identified a wholly-owned candidate compound, VYNT-0126, which is now in lead optimization, and could make a major difference in the lives of children diagnosed with Rett. We also have a program for CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder, a similar rare neurological disorder that affects infants and are developing a Parkinson’s disease model.

RF: The compounds that we identify through our human-first drug discovery platform have already been shown to be active in the human pathophysiological setting which, especially in CNS disorders, has greater predictive value than going from an animal model to a human model. As we apply the computational power of machine learning and AI to enhance the potency of molecules for our validated targets and improve the physicochemical properties of the molecules conferring enhanced brain uptake, we have been able to identify and de-risk clinical candidates with a more efficient path to the clinic.

What is Vyant Bio’s vision and objectives for 2022 and beyond?

RF: Our goal for 2022 is to advance our re-purposing candidate for Rett Syndrome to an IND.  In addition, we expect to identify novel lead candidates for Rett and CDKL5 programs in the latter half of the year and initiate high throughput screening of a familial Parkinson’s disease midbrain organoid.