Companies To Watch

This 10-person startup in San Diego is aiming for muscle-spasm relief without sedation in a purified drug.

Adaptive Phage Therapeutics has created a large catalog of bacteria-killing viruses combined with a diagnostic test to identify and target specific bacterial strains infecting individual patients.

In developing a new drug for MPN diseases, Imago is entering a space where two potential competitors, Jakafi and Inrebic, both JAK (janus associated kinase) inhibitors, are already on the market.

Scynexis is creating multiple development programs and a new class of antifungals — all in a single, and singular, drug.

Obsidian Therapeutics targets gene and cell therapies with a technology designed to control the production and activity of therapeutic proteins those therapies induce.

This month’s company to watch is eXIthera, which is focused on inhibiting Factor XIa, a new target that may offer a way to avoid the bleeding problems with current anticoagulants.

Leading Biosciences is applying the science of digestive proteases to treating or preventing multiple diseases and conditions, starting with delayed return of post-surgical bowel function (ileus) and adhesion with its lead product candidate, coded LB1148.

Bioharmony Therapeutics is developing novel, “lysin-based” antimicrobials. The company is out to change the world of antibiotics, not by tweaking an old formula, but by advancing an entirely new mode of action.

Angion is developing a small molecule mimetic of the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), which works to protect kidney and other organ cells from damage due to disease, physical injury, and indirect consequences of surgery and trauma.

Synlogic is an early-stage developer of “synthetic biotic” medicines — therapeutics consisting of beneficial microbes genetically engineered to treat rare metabolic diseases.

This 15-person virtual biotech is trying to stop immune-mediated disease early, before it becomes a chronic condition.

Vyome Therapeutics has built platforms and is developing products that address antibiotic resistance in severe skin conditions.

Azitra is a small, young, early-stage company developing microbial biotherapeutics for conditions arising on the skin that can be addressed by using the microbiome.

At the end of every year since we began the monthly column, Companies to Watch, I have gone back to the featured companies and asked each one to send me a short assessment of its progress since it appeared in Life Science Leader.