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Paloma Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was formed to develop and commercialize drugs directed against diseases involving aberrant vasculature including cancer, ocular diseases (macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy), arthritis, fibrotic diseases (renal and pulmonary fibrosis), endometriosis, osteoporosis and skin diseases (psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. The Company's initial focus is on ocular disease, followed by cancer and skin (psoriasis, atopic dermatitis and photodamage/wrinkling). Inhibiting aberrant new vasculature created via angiogenesis (creation of capillaries to support diseases) is a newly recognized and now established means to treat said pathologies. Paloma has a series of novel, proprietary, small molecule drugs, "Palomids", created through an integrated design platform incorporating proprietary, customized and industry standard computational tools. The Palomids are either specifically chosen by composition of matter for therapeutic indication.
The Company's small molecule program was initiated to make an "improved" small molecule anti-angiogenic agent showing broad activity, safety and the ability to work in a variety of pathological indications including, but not limited to, ocular diseases, oncology and skin diseases. To create such agents, the Company exploited a class of FDA approved drugs, antiestrogens. Antiestrogens are small molecule drugs previously shown to have both anti-angiogenic activity and the ability to inhibit aberrant cellular proliferation, i.e. "dual acting agents". The Palomids were created to "tease out" the anti-angiogenic and anti-proliferative activity of antiestrogens into a new series of patentable small molecules drugs with enhanced anti-angiogenic activity without estrogen competitive binding activity and the possibility of estrogenic side-effects. Through an integrated series of chemical design and testing with both in vitro ("test tube") and in vivo (animal models) assays Palomids have shown promising activity as an anti-angiogenic agent and as a direct anti-proliferative agent through means outside of conventional antiestrogen action. This has resulted in a library of potent dual acting drugs (anti-angiogenic and anti-proliferative) capable of working on a wide variety of diseases without the limitation of those bearing estrogen receptors.
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