NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Celmatix Inc. has been selected by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) as an awardee of the Sprint for Women’s Health, to address critical unmet challenges in women’s health, champion transformative innovations, and tackle health conditions that uniquely or disproportionately affect women. Celmatix will receive $3.5 million in funding over two years through the Sprint for Women’s Health spark track for early-stage research efforts.
The research effort is led by Dr. Piraye Yurttas Beim, founder and CEO, and Dr. Stephen Palmer, chief scientific officer, of Celmatix and will fund the company's ongoing efforts to develop a therapeutic aimed at controlling the timing and rate of decline in ovarian function that occurs in women during perimenopause and menopause. Menopause is the single biggest accelerant of unhealthy aging for modern women and helps explain why women are disproportionately impacted postmenopausally with conditions like heart disease and stroke, autoimmune disorders, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer’s disease. Despite the negative impacts of menopause on the health of all women at mid-life and beyond, there are currently no therapeutic interventions that enable women to proactively manage their lifelong health by controlling the timing of the onset of menopause or the rate of decline of ovarian function leading to menopause.
Celmatix has been pioneering a groundbreaking therapeutic program to improve and extend ovarian function throughout a woman’s lifespan by targeting a key regulator of ovarian function, Anti-Müllerian Hormone (AMH). To date, this target has been considered “undruggable,” but new therapeutic modalities have emerged in recent years that now present an innovative strategy for doing so. The award will permit Celmatix to test these novel molecular approaches to developing a first-of-its-kind ovarian therapeutic for ovarian health optimization and extension.
“Ovaries were meant to last a lifetime,” said Dr. Yurttas Beim. “However, women's average lifespan has nearly doubled over the last 100 years thanks to medical breakthroughs like antibiotics. As a result, women are now living nearly half of their lives without the function of this important organ. This means that while women are surviving longer than ever before, they aren’t necessarily thriving from a health perspective after their ovaries cease functioning during menopause. When most people think of ovaries, they associate them with babies, and when they think of menopause, they think of hot flashes. But ovaries are important beyond reproduction, and menopause contributes to a range of serious health conditions, such as increased risk of heart disease, osteoporosis, dementia, and metabolic diseases. I believe that extending ovarian function throughout the modern lifespan could be the single most important medical breakthrough of this century. It would have a cascading effect, reducing the risk of and protecting against, these and other life-threatening and debilitating conditions. My seven-year-old daughter often asks whether this therapy will be ready in time to protect her own ovaries. Thanks to this vital and timely funding from ARPA-H, I believe hers will be the first human generation for whom menopause is relegated to the annals of history.”
ARPA-H sought solutions within six topics of interest in women’s health, and received an unprecedented response of submissions. ARPA-H launched the Sprint for Women’s Health in February, with First Lady Jill Biden announcing the funding as the first major deliverable from the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research.
The ARPA-H Sprint for Women’s Health is conducted in collaboration with the Investor Catalyst Hub of ARPANET-H, the agency’s nationwide health innovation network that connects people, innovators, and institutions to accelerate better health outcomes for everyone. Celmatix will work with an ARPA-H Program Manager and the Investor Catalyst Hub over two years to develop their proposed solution, receiving milestone-based payments aligned to research activities and performance objectives.
About Celmatix
Based in New York City and Cambridge, MA, Celmatix Inc. is a preclinical-stage women’s health biotech focused uniquely on ovarian biology. With its growing pipeline of innovative drug programs including an AMHR2 agonist program focused on ovarian aging and an oral FSH for infertility, Celmatix is addressing areas of high unmet need by developing the next generation of interventions and pioneering advancements in ovarian health. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.celmatix.com.
