Our Mission
Developing small molecule therapeutics for liver diseases
to address important unmet medical needs
About Us
A biotech spinout company from the Baruch S. Blumberg Institute.
Leadership
World-class executive management and scientific advisory board.
Our Science
DHQ drug discovery shows exciting promise for new targeted therapeutics.
About Us
Harlingene Life Sciencies is an innovative biotech spinout company from the Baruch S. Blumberg Institute and we're dedicated to developing new generations of RNA destabilizing compounds to target liver diseases, including hepatitis A and B.
We're located at the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center
Leadership
Executive Management and Scientific Advisors
Chief Executive Officer - Timothy M. Block, PhD
President - Brian Eves, Esq
Chief Scientific Officer - Yanming Du, PhD
Chief Business Officer - Louis P. Kassa, III
SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD
Robert Gish, MD
Randall Hyer, MD, PhD, MPH
Patrick Lam, PhD
Our Science
DHQ compounds are a powerful and
unique family of drugs that offers hope
for development into effective targeted therapeutics.
The hepatitis B virus (HBV) causes chronic disease and is responsible for more than 1 million deaths per year worldwide,. There is a need for new, curative drugs that reduce levels of the viral envelope protein. The hepatitis A virus (HAV) has had no effective treatments introduced since its discovery more than 50 years ago, except for liver transplantation.
The Dihydroquinolizinone (DHQ) family of drugs, which inhibit cellular Poly-Adenylating Polymerases 5 and 7 (PAPD 5 & 7) that is used by the virus, is probably the only class of orally available, small molecule drugs in development today that can orally suppress HBV envelope protein. These would also be the first therapeutic drugs for HAV.
The issue with the DHQ family is that they appear to be associated with neurotoxicity after prolonged use. The HLS DHQ is designed to avoid brain exposure and to target the liver where the viruses reside.
The hope is that this powerful, unique family of drugs can be developed for effective therapeutics that avoid any neurotoxicity.
