News

Veana Therapeutics Announces

January 24, 2022

Veana Therapeutics receives $50K in competitive matching grant funding from Business Oregon to leverage Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant

Veana Therapeutics is pleased to announce its award of a highly competitive $50K State Matching Grant which is awarded from Business Oregon to only a few innovative companies that have also received peer-reviewed funding from the NIH Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant funding program.

This award will provide supplemental non-dilutive funding to support and scale Veana Therapeutics’ business activities and better position the company for future fundraising and growth.

See Business Oregon's press release for more information.

Contact information: Emmanuel Akporiaye, Ph.D. Veana Therapeutics, Portland, OR. www.veana-therapeutics.com info@veana-therapeutics.com

August 1, 2021

Veana Therapeutics receives $400K NIH Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI)

The SBIR program is a highly competitive program that encourages domestic small businesses to engage in Research and Development (R&D) that has the potential for commercialization. Through a competitive awards-based program, SBIR enables small businesses to explore their technological potential and provides the incentive to profit from its commercialization.

This project focuses on the pre-clinical evaluation of Veana’s lead product, VIMO in combination with Her2/neu-specific antibody (anti-Her2/neu) in the treatment of HER2+ Breast Cancer (HER2+ BC). HER2+ BC is an aggressive form of breast cancer which represents about 20% of all breast cancers, and accounts for over 8,000 deaths each year. Improving the lives of HER2+ BC patients by developing a novel agent that offers a safer, effective and less toxic treatment of HER2+ BC is therefore a critical unmet medical need.

The Specific Aims of the project are to: 1) Determine the optimum schedule of VIMO in combination with anti-HER2/neu that will elicit the best anti-tumor response in pre-clinical models of HER2+ BC; 2) Identify surrogate immunologic biomarkers of effective VIMO/anti-HER2/neu combination therapy; 3) Compare the antitumor activity and toxicity profile of a VIMO/anti-HER2/neu combination treatment with that of Paclitaxel/anti-HER2/neu and Lapatinib/anti-HER2/neu treatments.

Success of this project will provide evidence that VIMO is a safe and promising new agent for combination with trastuzumab for the treatment of HER2+ BC and will serve as a springboard for a first-in-human clinical trial of VIMO for the treatment of HER2+ BC.

Contact information: Emmanuel Akporiaye, Ph.D. Veana Therapeutics, Portland, OR. www.veana-therapeutics.com info@veana-therapeutics.com

November 23, 2020

Veana’s CEO, Dr. Emmanuel Akporiaye won the Judges Pitch Award in Late-Stage Startup category at the Oregon Bioscience Association (OBA) Oregon Bio Digital 2020 Annual Conference

Veana Therapeutics is pleased to announce that Founder and CEO, Emmanuel Akporiaye Ph.D., is the recipient of the Pitch & Partner 2020: Later-Stage Startup Edition - Judge's Award for his presentation “Developing Safer and Effective Oral Cancer Therapies” given in front of commercialization and economic development expert judges at the Oregon Bio Digital 2020: Amplifying Diversity of Discovery, Access and Economics Conference held in November 2020.

Contact information: Emmanuel Akporiaye, Ph.D. Veana Therapeutics, Portland, OR. www.veana-therapeutics.com info@veana-therapeutics.com

October 29, 2020

Founder and CEO, Emmanuel Akporiaye Ph.D., to present at Oregon Bioscience Association (OBA) Oregon Bio Digital 2020

Veana Therapeutics is pleased to announce that Founder and CEO, Emmanuel Akporiaye Ph.D., has been selected as a “Later-stage Startup” Pitch Presenter at Oregon Bio Digital 2020: Amplifying Diversity of Discovery, Access and Economics Conference commencing over three half days November 17-19, 2020.

You can register attendance to the virtual event here.

Contact information: Emmanuel Akporiaye, Ph.D. Veana Therapeutics, Portland, OR. www.veana-therapeutics.com info@veana-therapeutics.com

October 23, 2020

Founder and CEO, Emmanuel Akporiaye Ph.D., featured in Techlandia’s “The Faces of Healthcare Innovation”

Veana Therapeutics is pleased to announce that Founder and CEO, Emmanuel Akporiaye Ph.D., has been included in “The Faces of Healthcare Innovation” in the recent issue of Techlandia - Technology Association of Oregon’s online guide to the Oregon and Southwest Washington Tech Industry.

Follow this link to access the full article - “A Different Kind of Cancer Treatment”.

Contact information: Emmanuel Akporiaye, Ph.D. Veana Therapeutics, Portland, OR. www.veana-therapeutics.com info@veana-therapeutics.com

September 14, 2020

Founder and CEO Dr. Emmanuel Akporiaye to present at Oregon Bioscience Incubator (OBI) Virtual Lunch & Learn: Bioscience Career Panel on September 23, 2020

Veana Therapeutics is pleased to announce that Founder and CEO, Emmanuel Akporiaye Ph.D., has been invited to participate in an exciting panel discussion alongside a panel of Portland-based scientists employed in various Bioscience positions at The Virtual Lunch & Learn: Bioscience Career Panel presented by Oregon Bioscience Incubator (OBI) and Oregon Health & Science University Knight Cancer Institute’s Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research Center (CEDAR) on Wednesday, September 23, 2020.

You can register attendance to the virtual event here. 

Contact information: Emmanuel Akporiaye, Ph.D. Veana Therapeutics, Portland, OR. www.veana-therapeutics.com info@veana-therapeutics.com

August 26, 2020

UW Medicine announces - Novel Breast Cancer Therapy Candidate Enters Clinical Study

UW Medicine announces its collaboration with Veana Therapeutics on the clinical testing of alpha-TEA (aka ⍺-TEA lysine) in combination with the monoclonal antibody, trastuzumab, brand name Herceptin™ for advanced HER2+ breast cancer.

Follow this link to access the full announcement on UW Medicine’s Newsroom.

Contact information: Emmanuel Akporiaye, Ph.D. Veana Therapeutics, Portland, OR. www.veana-therapeutics.com info@veana-therapeutics.com

August 18, 2020

Veana Announces Clinical Collaboration with University of Washington for Novel Oral Oncology Candidate, Alpha-TEA in Advanced HER2+ Breast Cancer

Veana Therapeutics is pleased to announce that it has entered into a clinical research collaboration with the University of Washington to conduct a Phase I clinical trial of its lead agent, alpha-TEA (aka ⍺-TEA lysine) in combination with trastuzumab (Herceptin™) in HER2+ breast cancer patients. 

See full press release here.

Contact information: Emmanuel Akporiaye, Ph.D. Veana Therapeutics, Portland, OR. www.veana-therapeutics.com info@veana-therapeutics.com

May 14, 2020

Phase 1 Trial to be (virtually) presented at ‘Breast Cancer—Metastatic Poster Session’ of the 2020 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Veana Therapeutics is pleased to announce that its abstract titled “A phase I dose escalation trial of alpha-tocopheryloxyacetic acid and concurrent trastuzumab in patients with treatment refractory HER2+ metastatic breast cancer” has been selected by the Scientific Program Committee of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) for presentation at its 2020 ASCO Annual Meeting in the Breast Cancer—Metastatic Poster Session. Due to concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic, the meeting program will be delivered as a virtual event from May 29 – May 31. The poster will be presented by William Gwin, M.D. of the University of Washington who is the lead physician overseeing the clinical trial.

Stop by to check out Veana Therapeutics’ Poster

Contact information: Emmanuel Akporiaye, Ph.D. Veana Therapeutics, Portland, OR. www.veana-therapeutics.com info@veana-therapeutics.com

​November 28, 2018

Veana Therapeutics receives a $300k dollar Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Cancer Institute.

The SBIR program is a highly competitive program that encourages domestic small businesses to engage in Research and Development (R&D) that has the potential for commercialization. Through a competitive awards-based program, SBIR enables small businesses to explore their technological potential and provides the incentive to profit from its commercialization.

This award focuses on the treatment of breast cancer because there is a major medical unmet need for the development of novel agents that are safer for the treatment of Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) either as a single agent or in combination with immune boosters, which are FDA approved (e.g. anti-PD-1, anti-CTLA-4) or are in clinical trials (e.g. anti-OX40, anti-PDL-1). The SPECIFIC AIMS of the project are to: 1)Determine the optimum dose of a-TEA and schedule of anti-PD-1 that will elicit the best anti-tumor response in pre-clinical models of TNBC; 2) Identify surrogate immunologic biomarkers of effective a-TEA/anti-PD-1 combination therapy; 3) Compare the antitumor activity and toxicity profile of a-TEA + anti-PD1 treatment with that of Doxorubicin + anti-PD-1 and Paclitaxel + anti-PD-1 treatments.Success of this project will provide evidence that VIMO is a safe and promising new agent for the treatment of TNBC in combination with immunotherapy. Achievements of the milestones will provide springboard for a Phase II application for clinical development and commercialization of VIMO for the treatment of TNBC.

Contact information: Emmanuel Akporiaye, Ph.D. Veana Therapeutics, Portland, OR. www.veana-therapeutics.com info@veana-therapeutics.com

March 29, 2018

Veana Therapeutics is pleased to announce that Founder and CEO, Emmanuel Akporiaye Ph.D., has been invited to participate as a faculty member in the “Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy for Non-immunologists: Roundtable Discussions Session” at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. The session will be held on Saturday, April 14, 2018, 10:15 am – 12:15 pm in the McCormick Place North/South Convention Center in Chicago, IL.

Contact information: Emmanuel Akporiaye, Ph.D. Veana Therapeutics, Portland, OR. www.veana-therapeutics.com info@veana-therapeutics.com

November 1, 2017

Join Veana Therapeutics at the SITC 32nd Annual Meeting & Associated Programs November 8-12, 2017 at the Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.

Find out more about pre-clinical studies demonstrating anti-tumor activity of Veana Therapeutics’ orally-administered immunotherapy agent, Alpha-Tocopheroloxyacetic acid (a-TEA) against trastuzumab-sensitive and trastuzumab-resistant breast cancer. Veana is branding the a-TEA molecule, as VIMO™, for commercial purposes. VIMO is a dual-function agent that kills tumor cells and drives T cell anti-tumor immunity against established tumors.

Stop by to check out Veana Therapeutics’ Poster

Date: Friday, November 12: 11:45 AM - 1:00 PM Poster Number: 451 Poster Title: Alpha-TEA demonstrates antitumor activity against trastuzumab sensitive and resistant breast cancer

Contact information: Emmanuel Akporiaye, Ph.D. Veana Therapeutics, Portland, OR. www.veana-therapeutics.com info@veana-therapeutics.com

November 1, 2016

​Results from Ongoing Phase 1 Trial at SITC 2016

Join Veana Therapeutics at the SITC Annual Meeting & Associated Programs November 9-13, 2016 at the Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.

Find out about Veana Therapeutics’ orally-administered immunotherapy cancer drug, Alpha-Tocopheroloxyacetic acid (a-TEA). Veana is branding the a-TEA molecule, as VIMO™, for commercial purposes. VIMO is a dual-function agent that kills tumor cells and drives T cell anti-tumor immunity against established tumors. Oral VIMO-001 in capsule form is in a first-in-man clinical trial in advanced cancer patients to establish the safety profile and identify a maximum tolerated dose (MTD).

Stop by to check out Veana Therapeutics’ Late-Breaking Poster

Date: Saturday, November 12: 11:45 AM - 1:00 PM . Poster Number: 446 Poster Title: Phase I Study of Alpha-Tocopherlyoxyacetic Acid in Patients with Advanced Cancer: Immune Response and Pharmacokinetics Results

Contact information: Emmanuel Akporiaye, Ph.D. Veana Therapeutics, Portland, OR. www.veana-therapeutics.com info@veana-therapeutics.com