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DecoDerma selected among top academic startup companies globally by SPARK Stanford

Published on 11.11.2022
Tampere University
DecoDerma is happy to announce that DecoDerma has been selected among the best 10 global academic biotech companies in SPARK incubator network. DecoDerma will be provide an opportunity to present its business case for investors in the JPM BIO meeting in San Francisco, CA, USA, in January 9 – 13, 2023. SPARK is a Stanford University-initiated global incubator program for academic startup companies. DecoDerma will be attending the JPM BIO in SF in January 2023.

The DecoDerma team is led by Professor & Chief Surgeon Tero Järvinen (MD, PhD) from Tampere University (Finland). The team is developing a life-saving drug for rare pediatric skin disease, epidermolysis bullosa. Their molecule is a recombinant, multi-functional fusion protein that has both a targeting peptide domain (tCRK peptide) for a delivery to normal skin and skin wounds and Decorin (DCN) anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic protein as an active therapeutic component.

Project team is targeting to create novel treatments for lethal skin diseases, but the molecule has other potential disease indications within derma-space; among them scar reduction after surgical procedure and suppression of tumor growth.

DecoDerma has carried out proof-of-concept studies successfully, received the orphan drug designation for their molecule in Europe and the company was selected as one of the most promising startup companies in Scandinavia by both the Nordic Innovation Fair and the Nordic Life Science days. DecoDerma is currently raising capital for moving the molecule to clinical trials in RDEB patients to address the unmet medical need.

More info can be found on our project website DecoDerma.