Dr. Paul Hermonat, PhD founded Houston Gene Therapeutics, Inc on December 20, 2022, as a Delaware CCorp. AAV-based gene therapy is exploding as a major new standard of care in medicine. We are experts in this technology, being the first to generate recombinant AAV (rAAV) and deliver genes into human and murine cells in 1983-84. Our CEO Paul Hermonat has, since 2000, been addressing the major diseases using this technology concentrating on vascular/inflammatory disease, cancer, and aging.
About Dr. Paul Hermonat:
Our CEO, Dr. Paul Hermonat, founder of Houston Gene Therapeutics, Inc., is the originator of the AAV-based gene therapy technology, has tested 24 different genes by AAV-delivery in pre-clinical studies, identified HPV virus in breast cancer (a new breast cancer risk) and fetal miscarriage, pioneer in disease-responsive transcriptional promoters, and has been determined to be in the top 2% of “most influential researchers” by Stanford University.
Now we have our flagship HGT-Cardio-1 treatment vector against atherosclerosis with two anti-inflammatory genes (FoxP3 and IL10) driven be the inflammation responsive eNOX1promoter. When comparing our results with those of statins, both using the LDLR-KO/HCD mouse model, Cardio1 beat simvastatin and/or pravastatin in inhibiting atherosclerosis in the LDLR-KO HCD mouse model, and thus likely Cardio1 represent a new standard of care in the clinic if verified by human clinical trials.
On Dec 19, 2022 Houston Gene Therapeutics is now a Delaware C Corp!Houston Gene Therapeutics, Inc, 8990 Kirby Dr Ste 220, Houston, TX 77054, website https://www.houstongenetherapeutics.com. Paul Hermonat, PhD, CEO, 501-940-7034,
[email protected].
8990 Kirby Dr Ste 220, Houston, TX 77054, website https://www.houstongenetherapeutics.com. Paul Hermonat, PhD, CEO, 501-940-7034,
[email protected],
Houston Gene Therapeutics, Inc: We are raising $2-5M to advance HGT's anti-vascular disease AAV-based gene therapy treatment, HGT-Cardio-1, toward the clinic by carrying out toxicology, IND, Phase I, II, and III testing. Also, we will continue to further develop treatments for aging, dislipidemia, and cancer. See:
Latest News on HGT-Cardio-1, our initial "flagship" product, which is against atherosclerosis. HGT-Cardio-1 is very promising as a new "standard of care" for atherosclerosis.
HGT-Cardio-1 is now protected by two US Patents: 11,091,524 and 11,274,134 with others submitted. It has been highly effective in our animal model LDLR-KO mice on high cholesterol diet (HCD). However, how is this better than statin treatments, present "standard of Care (SOC)". Below see our most central data on comparing simvastatin and HGT-Cardio-1 by doing a 4 Study Comparison. We concentrated the most critical data as a figure just below. In addition, statins must be taken daily, while gene therapy lasts 10 years.
Please see this 1.5 min video on HGT-Cardio-1 besting standard of care statins in the LDLR-KO/HCD mouse and its ramifications:
https://www.houstongenetherapeutics.com/pipeline#hgt-cardio-1 Investment request: Houston Gene Therapeutics (HGT), LLC, is an AAV-based gene therapy company which intends to treat the major diseases of our time (inflammation, cancer aging) using the new AAV gene therapy approach. Presently, based at 8890 Kirby Dr Ste 220, Houston, TX 77054, HGT has two issued (USP 11,091,524, USP 11,274,134) on HGT-Cardio-1) and one pending US PAT on the treatment of vascular (eg. atherosclerosis-inflammatory) disease, with two more in preparation. For funding, we are trying to raise $2-5M for HGT-Cardio-1 toxicology studies in large animal models (Duroc piglets and Cynomolgus monkeys) and towards IND & Phase I, II, III Clinical Trials. We would also like to receive $3M for further pre-clinical R&D for our hypertension, dyslipidemia and aging gene therapy products. Overall, that is about a $10M request to give HGT a good start in treatment development. Our costs are based on personal estimations and may change due to altering goals, markets, FDA compliance, reagent costs, and other changes.
In summary, we are requesting $2-5M for the further development of our first anti-cardiovascular disease (atherosclerosis) gene therapy treatment; HGT-Cardio-1. Later we will be requesting an additional $2M for additional gene treatments development for other important diseases (Hypertension, Dyslipidemia, Aging). At the same time, we would like to establish a brick and mortar laboratory facility to carry out experiments in-house, and have a consolidated headquarters, office space.
To give full disclosure of the situation, investing in gene therapy/biotech is not designed for a rapid money “flip” for profit, this being due to the several years development of products to the market place, plus getting patents awarded. However, by developing a portfolio of intellectual property (on HGT-Cardio-1) and bringing gene therapy products to the clinical marketplace there is an outstanding chance to make large profit in the longer term. It must be stated that as of the middle of 2021 gene therapy treatments cost roughly $1.5 million per patient. Additionally, products beyond what is listed here are envisioned.
Company description:
I’m Paul Hermonat, PhD, (
[email protected]) and I’ve founded Houston Gene Therapeutics, Inc (https://www.houstongenetherapeutics.com) in 2022 to carry out HGT’s vision and goals. At HGT our goals are to create and deliver new, superior, AAV-based gene therapies (AAV-GT) to treat the major diseases of our time (cardiovascular inflammation [atherosclerosis], cancer, and aging). (
https://www.houstongenetherapeutics.com/blog/allowance-of-first-patent) and another pending application for the treatment of AAV-cardiovascular disease. Our long-term goal is to deliver safe, effective, long lasting treatments using AAV-GT/human genes as drugs. One of our largely unique features is the use of custom transcriptional promoters which will be responsive to pathology-development within the local of the transduced cell, which will target the expression of the therapeutic gene to the site needed, thereby reducing adverse reactions.
We plan to make these treatments available through your physician, and/or through a network of hospitals and/or doctor’s offices, which will be recruited.
As HGT CEO, I’m former Endowed Chair in Cardiovascular Research, Tenured Professor of Internal Medicine, and Tenured Professor in OB/GYN of the University of Arkansas for Medical Science (for 25 years), having first received my PhD in Medical Microbiology/Immunology from the University of Florida (Gainesville), having done a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD), and having been a faculty member at The John’s Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD). I’m highly experienced in AAV gene therapy technology, actually the originator of the technology, and AAV is the top gene therapy virus. In fact, I was the first to generate an AAV virus carrying a foreign gene within it (rAAV), and to deliver that foreign gene into human and murine cells in culture. My broad experience in using gene therapy to treat cardiovascular disease is documented by my publications on the use of the 10 genes listed below, in long (20 weeks) and expensive experiments:
hIL10, Lox1pr-hIL10, hFoxP3, hCGRP, hSMAD3, hPRDX6, hSTAT3, hIL10+hSTAT3, hAT2R, hTGFbeta1 (multiple), hNetrin1.
Target Markets.
As mentioned earlier, our goal is to create and deliver AAV-based gene therapies to treat the major diseases of our time (cardiovascular inflammation [atherosclerosis], cancer, and aging). The biggest advantage for AAV-based gene therapy is the possibility of higher efficacy, safety, and semi-permanent treatment (10 years). The are about 80M people with atherosclerosis in the US which HGT-Cardio-1 (data from LDLR-KO/HCD mouse model) could be used as a treatment for their disease state. Additionally we have preliminary data that HGT-Cardio-1 can also treat type 2 diabetes (T2D) as tested by the oral glucose tolerance test in the same animal model., which represents another 40M US patient population.
Analyzing the total potential revenue from treating atherosclerosis and T2D we have a total market size of 120M and each patient will provide $1.5M.
Thus, 120M x $1.5M = $180T. So this number is unachievable as it is TWICE the size of World GDP. Yet it certainly indicates the outsized, gigantic, amount of revenue which HGT-Cardio-1 could generate.
All our products target outsized markets.
Competition
According to Google Analytics the following are HGT's closest competitors:
Sparktx.com with $20M revenue and 354 employees and is doing gene therapy,
Libellagenetherapy.com does aging gene therapy and clinical trials are outside the USA,
Renovatherapeutics.com does cardiovascular and metabolic diseases with 6 employees with no statements about revenue I could find, so it has some overlap/similar goals to HGT, but they are very small.
Catalent.com is a giant company with 14,000 employees with $3B in revenue and provides drug delivery technologies such as next-generation cell and gene therapies. Being a giant competitor its clear that gene therapy is only a small part of their portfolio. Catalent will go on its merry way, divided among many things.
Libella has concentrated on aging and must do clinical trials outside the US, which is a red flag.
Sparktx.com is probably one of HGT's biggest competitors, but they have concentrated on genetic syndromes of the eye which is a very small market.
As HGT appears to have the largest targeted markets (inflammation, cancer, aging) of the companies mentioned here, and any gene therapy company for that matter, and our market goals are chosen both for revenue success and for integrating with the future of medicine and giving the biggest footprint in healthcare.
Use of Proceeds.
$$$ for HGT-Cardio-1 FDA steps: toxicology (large animal), phase I, phase II, and phase III clinical trials, then go to market. R&D new products.
We also need to hire staff and carry out further R&D toward generating additional therapies (gene therapy vectors). These must be tested in tissue culture, animal models, and toxicology. We can adjust to funding we receive by reducing/expanding goals.