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Unify Pharmaceuticals has a unique class of small molecule enzyme mimetics that reduce oxidative and inflammatory injury. The range of applications is vast (just like corticosteroids or anti-TNFs) but our science is most advanced in neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s. The technology behind Unify has been supported by more than $39M USD in funding from federal grants and philanthropic gifts
Unify is led by some of the brightest scientific minds in the world with a proven record of creating and developing the world’s most successful drugs:
Prof Laura Dugan – a neuroscientist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, whose work on neurodegenerative diseases over the past two decades forms the basis for Unify’s business. A physician-scientist, Dugan has studied at some of the top scientific institutions in the world including MIT and Stanford.
Prof Sir Marc Feldmann – has initiated a major revolution in therapeutics; he initiated and developed the first successful monoclonal antibody therapy, anti-TNF.
In 1990 Prof Sir Marc Feldmann visited Centocor to present the rationale for blocking TNF in rheumatoid arthritis. Reluctantly, they helped him and Sir Ravinder Maini test this with their antibody, now Infliximab (Remicade). The resulting success led to Centocor’s $4.9 B USD acquisition by Johnson & Johnson in 1999. Infliximab is now one of the world’s best-selling drugs, with sales of $7.152 B USD in 2017.
Feldmann and Maini are credited with creating the whole class of anti-TNF drugs. Several other companies used their pioneering research to underpin their own clinical trials.
Publishes his hypothesis highlighting the role of cytokines in autoimmune diseases
Begins collaborating with Ravinder S. Maini on rheumatoid arthritis research
Published that anti-TNF normalized joint inflammation in vitro (Brennan et al, Lancet 1988)
First successful trials of Infliximab
Infliximab (Remicade) approved and released to the market
Centocor acquired by J&J for $4.9 B USD
Awarded the Crafoord prize with Maini for their work on anti-TNF therapy
Awarded the Albert Lasker award for Clinical Medical Research
Awarded the Cameron Prize for Therapeutics from the University of Edinburgh
Elected a fellow of the Royal Society
Awarded “European Inventor of the Year” by the European Patent Offices
Knighted by Prince Charles in the Queen’s Birthday Honours
Sir Marc Feldmann receives the Canada Gairdner International Award which is the highest scientific award in Canada
Remicade is the seventh-best-selling drug in the world with sales of $7.152 B USD
1981
Graduates from MIT, having begun work on graphite composite materials
Completes MD at Ohio State University
Begins clinical training & research on neurodegenerative diseases at Stanford University
Funding by the National Institute of Health begins
Joins Washington University, St Louis
First work published on the neuroprotective properties of UP-1007
First physician-scientist named as Chair in Geriatrics at UCSD
Named head of Division of Geriatric Medicine at Vanderbilt
Meets Prof Sir Marc Feldmann at the University of Oxford
Prof Dugan has received approx. $39 M USD in funding in Federal NIH and DoD grants, one SBIR, and several large philanthropic gifts
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