Natural compounds and their analogues have an important place in the pharmaceutical industry. More than two-thirds of the new drugs approved in the United States during the last twenty-five years are compounds which may have their origins traced back to a natural source. A closer inspection reveals natural products or their analogues are used to treat approximately 90% of all categorized human diseases.
As illustrative examples, the common analgesic drug Aspirin and the widely used chemotherapeutic drug Taxol were originally isolated from the Willow tree and from the bark of the Pacific Yew tree, respectively. Why is nature such a good place to look for potential therapeutic agents? One reason is the spectacular diversity of the molecular scaffolds that nature provides to researchers to work with.
Due to advancements in molecular biology and chemistry, there has been a subtle intellectual shift in drug discovery away from natural products and towards chemical libraries of small synthetic compounds. Yet, in terms of the introduction of new chemical entities, the productivity of the pharmaceutical industry has been in steady decline.
Nature produces compounds for specific purposes and often does so in ways that may not be readily conceived by man. Another reason is that natural products and secondary metabolites evolve within living systems and thus often demonstrate "drug-likeness" making them good candidates for development with an early edge over completely synthetic compounds.
Welichem Biotech Inc. is a leading biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of new therapeutic agents in the areas of inflammatory/autoimmune diseases and oncology. The inspiration for Welichem's drug candidates come from natural compounds which are isolated from bacterial symbionts of soil-living nematodes using our SymbioChem TM discovery platform. Welichem has discovered an array of natural compounds, many of them with novel chemical structures, which have potential as therapeutic drugs against inflammatory/autoimmune diseases, cancer and infectious diseases. Currently, Welichem is focused on taking its lead drug candidate (WBI-1001) for the topical treatment of psoriasis into a phase I clinical trial this summer, subject to regulatory approval. This will then be followed by our novel anti-cancer drug candidate (WBI-2100) that is currently in preclinical trials.
Dr. Michael Lyle
May 2007
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