With his first start-up, 25 million euros was lost from investors. The Limburg psychiatrist Erik Buntinx is now seizing his second chance and will – together with the biotech pioneer Rudi Pauwels – test a new depression drug in the US. ‘I cursed once. But I’m a farmer’s son. Farmers never give up either.’
The Limburg biotech company Aneurotech has reached an agreement in principle with the American drug watchdog to test a new depression drug on 600 Americans. If everything goes smoothly, the first patient will be treated next year. The study is the latest step towards commercialization.
Worldwide, 190 million people suffer from depression where they do not respond or respond insufficiently to existing treatments. Based on previous study results on more than 400 patients, Aneurotech founder Erik Buntinx – a psychiatrist by training – thinks he can help half of them.
The essence
Aneurotech, founded in 2022 in Alken, is looking for 60 million euros in capital to finance a final study in the US for a new antidepressant. Founder Erik Buntinx and biotech pioneer Rudi Pauwels have already invested 5 million euros in the research.
Buntinx is a psychiatrist by training, has his own practice and is also the man behind Anima Research Center, which conducts drug studies for pharmaceutical companies. It now has 70 employees and last year achieved a net profit of 1.2 million euros.
Buntinx’s earlier business adventure with an antidepressant came to nothing. Investors, including Rudi Mariën and Jos Sluys, lost 25 million euros.
“Depression is a growing problem,” he says. ‘The pandemic alone has added 20 to 30 percent of patients. Psychiatrists are inundated with people with mental complaints. Many of them have little or no social network. They do know people, but if you ask who they can talk to when the going gets tough, it gets quiet. People’s self-reliance diminishes. If it goes off the rails, you start to sleep badly, have no energy and don’t find pleasure in anything anymore, it no longer helps to go to the gym every week. You can’t get out of that pit alone. I see that in my practice too.’
Depression is a growing problem. People’s self-reliance diminishes.
Aneurotech’s drug is not a ‘new’ drug, but a pill – pipamperone – that was put on the market in the 1960s by Janssen Pharmaceutica for the treatment of schizophrenia. However, it was not a powerful drug. It took a large dose and had many side effects, so it never really worked.
‘We have reinvented that medicine’, says Buntinx, who specializes in research into how medicines affect the brain. ‘We’ve studied a lot of resources, maybe a hundred. And with this drug we have made a very interesting discovery.’ It has a very specific effect on the regulation of serotonin and dopamine in the brain, two substances that regulate mood. ‘And that is already the case at a very low dose, with hardly any or no side effects. No one ever paid attention to that ancient drug. No one has ever tested it against depression.’
bumpy track
The discovery dates back to 2002, and under the impulse of the late Paul Janssen – ‘my mentor’ – Buntinx persevered. The antidepressant has come a long way in those 20 years. Initially in the biotech company PharmaNeuroBoost (PNB), which capsized ten years ago and where 25 million euros of investments came to nothing. Rudi Mariën and Jos Sluys (Saffelberg) among others lost several millions.
We have reinvented an old drug from Janssen Pharmaceutica.
‘I once cursed,’ says Buntinx. ‘But I’m a go-getter. My parents had a pig farm and a fruit farm. A farmer never gives up. I got that from my parents. Or the fear that it will fail a second time? That’s possible, of course, but I think we’ve already eliminated a lot of potential risks.’
Aneurotech’s drug is essentially the same as the one PNB hoped to score with. “But we’ve done more experiments in the meantime.” While PNB tried unsuccessfully to develop the pill as a fast-acting antidepressant drug as a first-line treatment, Aneutorech is targeting patients with partial response depression with the pill.
I am a go-getter. My parents had a pig farm and a fruit farm. A farmer never gives up. I got that from my parents.
That large group of patients – 60 percent of the total – had already tried several drugs without success. Buntinx has already tested its pill on more than 400 patients in previous studies, as a booster in combination with existing medicines.
‘That produces good results. 100 percent success would be a miracle and unfortunately that doesn’t exist in medicine, but we think we can help half. In addition, we see that the pill also has a positive effect on memory and concentration, which many patients also struggle with. That is an extra claim that we can unpack. And that is unique.’
The research process after the bankruptcy of PNB absorbed another 5 million euros, financed by Buntinx and the biotech pioneer Rudi Pauwels. The latter was one of the founders of the AIDS inhibitors of Tibotec-Virco and is the founder of the listed company Biocartis.
Blockbuster
A search is underway for 60 million euros in additional capital to pay for the final study phase. “That money won’t be in one, two, three in the bank account. The difficult climate in the financial markets is a setback. Anyway, we believe in it.’
If the drug makes it to the finish line, Aneurotech expects it to become a blockbuster with at least one and a half billion euros in peak revenue. Depression is a $20 billion market dominated by low-cost, patent-expired drugs. In the US you already have a treatment for three months for 10 dollars, but for innovative medicines you can ask for 1,000 per month.’