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Gentris Targets Gene-Based Approach to Drug Research, Development

Posted on: Wednesday, 6 July 2005, 00:00 CDT

Jul. 6--Morrisville -- A little strategic maneuvering is paying off for Gentris.

The Morrisville company makes tests that identify patients whose genetic makeup causes them to react poorly to certain drugs. Now it is getting ready to seek regulatory approval for one of those tests, and hopes to have it on the market in 2006.

In preparing for the launch, Gentris is setting up a 5,000-square-foot manufacturing area and expects to hire about 20 regulatory experts and scientists in the next year. It now employs 28. In addition, it is following its global aspirations by building a facility in Japan and plans to open a laboratory in Europe.

Not bad for a company that just two years ago was having trouble raising all the venture capital it needed.

Gentris represents what is considered the future of medicine -- a personalized, gene-based approach to drug research, development and therapy.

Because of its promise, investors are closely watching advances made by research-and-development companies such as Gentris. But that interest has yet to turn into many investments.

Personalized medicine will happen, said Dr. Garheng Kong of Intersouth Partners, a venture capital firm in Durham, that has not invested in Gentris. The question is when it will happen.

"Hopefully, one day we can [genetically] profile a person completely," Kong said.

"We're in the early days," agreed Jeff Clark, a co-founder of Aurora Funds, another venture capital firm in Durham that has not invested in Gentris.

That was even more true in 2002, when Gentris' chief executive Michael Murphy went calling on investors to raise $10 million in venture capital. When the fund-raiser closed in 2003, it had raised $3.1 million, Murphy said.

"We gave it our best effort," Murphy said.

To stretch its cash reserves, Gentris began emphasizing its testing services for the pharmaceutical industry.

The tactic worked. In 2002, the Gentris generated revenues of $1.5 million. This year, revenue is projected to reach $3 million, Murphy said. As a result, investors were persuaded to provide $5 million three months ago. That money is paying for the expansion.

Tests for pharmaceutical clients focus on an enzyme family known as cytochrome P450, or CYP450. The enzymes, most of which can be found in the liver, help the body break down about 30 percent of all drugs on the market, including antidepressants, treatments to lower blood pressure and anesthetics used in surgery.

Patients who have CYP450 enzymes with genetic mutations may overdose when given recommended amounts of those drugs, or the drugs may not work at all.

Gentris helps pharmaceutical clients test how experimental drugs interact with 13 of the about 20 members in the CYP450 family.

As its revenues rose, Gentris' work force tripled and in October 2004 the company moved into 10,000 square feet of offices and laboratories.

"This is a double-wide," Murphy joked. "We used to live in a single-wide."

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Source: The News & Observer

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