VasoGenix Happy With Home in KC Area

Vasogenix Pharmaceuticals recently added its name to the list of companies that can testify to the vitality offered by the life science initiative going on in the Kansas City area. VasoGenix is located at the Enterprise Center of Johnson County in Lenexa, The company recently moved to the area from Denver. Company president and CEO Gary Yewey and co-founders Jeffrey Southard, Gary Rosenthal and Sunil Wimalawansa had looked unsuccessfully in the Denver area for avenues for the clinical development of drugs. It wasn't long until the Kansas City area lured them.

Yewey said, "Not only is there a biotech and life sciences initiative going on in Kansas City, but by situating here we have access to some of the best research and development professionals in the business-Higuchi Bioscience Center, Regulatory and Clinical Consultants, Inc., to name just a couple." Yewey indicated VasoGenix is especially excited to work with the HBC because of its national reputation in transdermal peptide delivery.

VasoGenix is developing a calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) for the site-specific treatment of vascular diseases. CGRP is the linchpin of the company. The company owns the intellectual property rights to develop CGRP as a vasodialator used in the treatment of angioplasty-induced complications, renal failure and impotence. During an angioplasty patients often suffer ischemia and no-reflow, a condition in which pieces of a clot disturbed during the procedure clog the microvasculature downstream, preventing blood flow to heart tissue. Ischemia and no-reflow can lead to heart attack. By administering CGRP, physicians can increase patient comfort during angio-plasty and decrease the risk of complications associated with the procedure.

VasoGenix also is exploring CGRP as a treatment for sexual dysfunction in both men and women. Currently, the company is developing topical formulations of the peptide to treat erectile dysfunction and female sexual arousal disorder.

"We will be working with the Higuchi Bioscience Center to optimize our topical formulations of the peptide," Yewey said.

Yewey has a Ph.D. in biochemistry and has worked in the biotechnology field for almost 20 years. In fact, VasoGenix is his third start-up company. He and the company's co-founders had worked together on other ventures and had similar academic and business backgrounds. "We all had the shared experience of working our way up from the bench to upper management," Yewey said. The company recently appointed Jeff Jonas, formerly of Avax, as the company's chairman of the board.

The company's long-term goals are to build a pipeline of drugs with near-term clinical potential. To that end, Yewey said he is always on the lookout for other promising near-term technologies like CGRP to license. Currently, VasoGenix has a staff of five, but Yewey hopes to expand that number to about 35 over the next three to five years. Most importantly, he and the company's founders want to take VasoGenix public and establish it as a drug development company in the Kansas City area.

"We're very excited to be in Kansas City," Yewey said. "The networking potential is incredible. As someone coming in from the outside, I can say we've been warmly welcomed."