Company Profile

Atox Bio is a privately held biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of therapeutics for the treatment of infectious and autoimmune diseases mediated by excessive T-cell response. Having developed novel immunomodulators that reduce autoimmune response, as well as novel antagonists that block the action of a family of deadly bacterial toxins termed superantigens, Atox Bio is now developing products for treatment of:

• Infectious diseases – Toxic shock (including a biodefense countermeasure against superantigen toxins) and Gram-positive septic shock, both of which are highly lethal and constitute a strong unmet medical need.
• Autoimmune diseases – Including rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and psoriasis, each constituting a strong and as yet unsatisfied medical need.

Founded on groundbreaking technology

Atox Bio Inc. was founded in 2003, based on a groundbreaking superantigen antagonist technology developed by Drs. Raymond Kaempfer and Gila Arad of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. They co-founded the company together with Yissum the Technology Transfer Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Atox Bio is registered in Delaware as a privately held US company. Its R&D activities are conducted by the wholly owned Israeli subsidiary, Atox Bio Ltd.

Atox Bio’s innovative technology is based on a profound understanding of how the immune system is manipulated by superantigen toxins. The technology has the unique ability to halt the toxicity cascade before the activation of T-cells occurs.

This new technology provides a novel and highly efficient approach to the treatment of infectious and autoimmune diseases mediated by excessive T-cell response, through manipulation of novel ligand-receptor interactions discovered by Atox Bio's scientists, and used also by superantigens.

Research funding of over $6.5 million has been provided by the US Army and the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Atox Bio is developing its product for biodefense in collaboration with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, under a current award of $5.6 million from the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Atox Bio holds the exclusive license for the Intellectual Property of this product and its technology.

In a two-pronged R&D strategy, Atox Bio's platform technology is being used to develop both a biodefense countermeasure, and a novel treatment of specific infectious and autoimmune diseases.