The human arsenal, as we know, has always been a little on the loaded side, and yet it has never possessed anything more valuable than that tendency of ours to improve under every possible situation. We say this because the stated tendency has really fetched us some huge milestones, with technology appearing as a major member of that group. The main reason why technology enjoys such an esteemed stature among people is predicated upon its skill-set, which ushered us towards a reality nobody could have imagined otherwise. Nevertheless, if we look a little bit closer, it will become clear how the whole runner was also very much inspired by the way we applied those skills across a real-world environment. The latter component was, in fact, what gave the creation a spectrum-wide presence, including a timely appearance on our healthcare block. Technology’s foray into healthcare was so perfect with its timing, as it came right when the sector was beginning to struggle against its own obsolete structure. This reality, fortunately for us, went through drastic makeover under the new regime, but even after achieving such a monumental feat, the emerging medtech concept will somehow keep on producing all the right goods. The same has turned more and more evident in recent past, and a newly-launched startup will be looking to make that trend bigger and better moving forward.
After launching a startup last month, the San Diego-based Replay has now officially conceived a new company, which goes by the name of Teleria. According to certain reports, Teleria’s roadmap, at its heart, consists of an ambition to solve rare skin diseases, and to realize the stated ambition, the company has developed a lead program that taps into a slightly less explored condition i.e. recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB). Talk about RDEB, it is an inherited disorder in which genetic mutations block or disrupt the formation of collagen that connects the epidermis to the dermis. Once this connection between the layers is destroyed, it makes the skin much more prone to wounds and blisters. Now, while the condition has shown to cause various severe consequences like chronic inflammation, and squamous cell carcinoma, which is a type of skin cancer, it still doesn’t have any FDA-approved treatments on the market. So, how is Teleria going to produce a reliable solution here? Well, unlike gazillion other companies that use adeno associated-viruses (AAV) to deliver genetic medicines, Teleria will bet on herpes simplex virus (HSV) to do the job. It will mainly do so because Replay has created a version of HSV which is supposedly capable of delivering up to eight times the payload capacity of AAV vectors. Armed with an added room, the company is able to use bigger genes, and therefore, achieve better therapeutic results. However, both Teleria and Replay have even better plans in place, considering the latter is already developing an HSV vector that could deliver up to 30 times the payload of AAV.
“There is currently no approved cure for individuals suffering from RDEB and I am aware, from my own personal experience, that the current standard of care is limited and does not provide long-term and sustainable benefit to patients,” said Alexander Silver co-founder of Teleria. “Replay’s synHSV technology, which enables the delivery of big DNA to the skin through its differentiated payload capacity, has the potential to disrupt the genetic skin disease gene therapy field, and to bring much needed treatments to patients as rapidly and safely as possible.”
Launched in July 2022, Replay basically operates on a “hub-and-spoke” business model in which it develops its own platform technologies and identifies therapeutic areas that can be addressed by one or more of these technologies. Prior to Teleria, the company created a biotech named Eudora, which is purposed around treating retinal diseases. However, at the moment, we have every reason to believe that more of such startups will soon join the pack.
