AILERON Therapeutics, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a biopharmaceutical company that was founded in 2005 to develop and advance a revolutionary class of drugs called Stapled Peptides. Stapled Peptides represent the first general solution, or "scaffold" for modulating intracellular protein-protein interactions that are critical control points to nearly all functions of a cell. The ability to target and regulate these control points affords the unique opportunity to exploit potentially thousands of currently "undruggable" cellular targets with applications in all human diseases.
AILERON’s proprietary technology locks peptides into their biologically active shape, mimicking the structures found in nature, and ultimately endows the peptide with unique properties, including efficient cell penetration, high affinity binding to large target protein surfaces and excellent stability within the body.
A Limited Therapeutic Arsenal Demands New Technologies.
Modern medicine's understanding of disease states and the processes that lead to disease continues to expand exponentially, including the identification of cellular pathways and targets that play key roles in disease. Unfortunately, there is a dramatic gap between our understanding of diseases and our ability to treat them because of the limitations inherent in our existing drug platforms. At present, the entire pharmaceutical industry – and therefore the entire drug arsenal available to physicians – is based on technologies (primarily small molecules and therapeutic proteins) that can address an estimated 10% to 20% of the identified therapeutic targets within the body. Improvements in delivery, formulation and diagnostic tools will continue to provide incremental improvements to existing technology platforms and targets, but the majority of the universe of targets and diseases are presently "undruggable" by existing modalities.
Stapled Peptides are cell permeable and synthetically optimizable, like small molecules, but they are not as limited in the types of targets that they can bind, retaining the targeting flexibility of therapeutic proteins with very few limitations in their ability to address extracellular and intracellular targets. In short, Stapled Peptides capture the best features of small molecules and therapeutic proteins, but avoid the key limitations of both modalities. This unique combination of features could virtually double the number of addressable therapeutic targets, providing an unique opportunity to address unmet medical needs in a completely new way.
Well Positioned to Lead the Emerging Stapled Peptide Field.
AILERON has assembled a team of scientific and business experts with a long track record of building successful innovative companies and has been able to rapidly advance multiple Stapled Peptides to build a pipeline of preclinical product candidates. AILERON is presently applying its technology platform to develop Stapled Peptides for oncology, metabolic disease, inflammatory and infectious diseases.
As the commercial pioneer of Stapled Peptides, Aileron has successfully developed extensive Stapled Peptide libraries as well as invented myriad methods of design, manufacturing, testing and formulation necessary to advance this new class of drugs.
Accordingly, Aileron has created a broad and exclusive patent estate covering everything necessary for the development and commercialization of the Stapled Peptide technology and its applications.