Safely sustaining pregnancy
Comanche is a biopharmaceutical company developing a novel siRNA therapy for the treatment of preeclampsia. Our purpose is to lower the risks of pregnancy and prematurity worldwide by safely sustaining pregnancy.
The Problem
What is Preeclampsia?
Many women have never heard of preeclampsia and are understandably frightened when they receive such a diagnosis. The disease is often first apparent during a routine prenatal visit in the third trimester of pregnancy. A common clinical sign of preeclampsia is elevated maternal blood pressure, though other clinical signs and symptoms may include protein in the urine (a sign of kidney damage), headache, visual disturbances, abdominal pain, or swelling of the arms and legs. Preeclampsia has historically been a challenge to diagnose accurately because pregnant women experience a wide and varied spectrum of symptoms. Some pregnant women with preeclampsia may feel completely normal. Currently, the only “cure” for preeclampsia is delivery of the baby and placenta, most often prematurely, but this does not resolve the lasting physical and mental harm done by the disease.
Preeclampsia afflicts more than 10 million women every year around the world with devastating short and long term consequences to both mother and baby. Tragically, it accounts for nearly 80,000 maternal and over 500,000 fetal deaths each year. Although all pregnant women are at risk of developing the disease, it disproportionately affects women of color, women in their teens or over forty years of age, women who have undergone in vitro fertilization, and those in lower socio-economic status.
The burden of preeclampsia is accelerating worldwide and remains an urgent unmet medical need despite more than 50 years of research seeking a cure. It is now a public health crisis.
We are leading a global effort to end this disease and improve maternal health by conducting high quality, safe clinical trials in this complex patient population.
Read About The Breakthrough
10
Million
women afflicted by preeclampsia every year worldwide.
The Breakthrough
In 2003 a team of cross-functional researchers discovered that preeclamptic women have dangerously high levels of a protein called sFlt1 in their bloodstream.
When produced at such high levels, the protein damages mom’s blood vessels and impairs the growth of new ones.
These researchers then determined that the placenta can sometimes inadvertently produce this protein in excess and once it reaches toxic levels is responsible for many of the signs and symptoms of preeclampsia.
With over 20 years of steadfast effort, these observations have been repeated across diverse geographies and patient groups, resulting in sFlt1 becoming the most relevant target for potentially modifying the disease.
The Solution
For decades researchers have been trying to develop a therapeutic approach to lower excess production of sFlt1 in the blood of women with preeclampsia, but until now the specificity needed to target the protein has eluded them.
We harness a biological phenomenon naturally present in all human cells to reduce toxic levels of excess production of sFlt1 by the placenta and which was the basis for the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Inside all of us is an amazing human “search engine” constantly on the lookout for faulty messages to stop.
Our scientists identified the unique code or “search terms” responsible for producing sFlt1 while ensuring all other proteins remain unaffected.
We then designed molecules that harness this natural mechanism by providing it with the instructions needed.
It is our aim to reduce sFlt1 in preeclampsia so mom’s symptoms get better and the baby will continue growing safely.
You are not alone and not to blame.
Preeclampsia is not your fault. It is a complex disease that does not discriminate and affects many pregnant women around the world.
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Contact Us
50 Beharrell St, Unit B
Concord, MA 01742