Vitanova Biomedical is a preclinical stage biotechnology company focused on improving the lives of cancer patients and the professionals who care for them by providing a cost effective and efficacious cancer therapy which eliminates unwanted side effects.

While future cancer indications can be pursued by simply changing the targeting conjugates of our proprietary compound, VNB is currently pursuing early stage local prostate cancer as our first cancer therapy indication.

UNMET MARKET NEED:
The prevalence of US men diagnosed with all stages of prostate cancer is approximately 3.3 million patients, with over 80% of all prostate cancer patients being diagnosed with local prostate cancer. As the standard of care (SOC), men with local prostate cancer have two therapy choices: 1) Surgery and/or radiation which are associated with high five-year survival, but potentially cause debilitating side effects including erectile dysfunction, bowel urgency, and urinary incontinence; or 2) Active surveillance which does not have the side effects of surgery and/or radiation, but involves repeat biopsies, causes anxiety due to living with untreated cancer, and the consequence of the cancer progressing to a more advanced clinical stage with a reduced five-year survival.

VITANOVA BIOMEDICAL SOLUTION:
VNB’s initial compound consists of an upconverting nanoparticle (UCNP) conjugated with prostate specific membrane antibody (PSMAb) designed to detect prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) expressed exclusively on the surface of prostate cancer cells. This PSMA-targeted UCNP (VNBp-1) is intratumorally injected and will only enter cancer cells expressing PSMA. By targeting VNBp-1 to only prostate cancer cells, VNB will effectively kill prostate cancer without damaging nearby healthy tissue or causing any unwanted side effects. VNBp-1 is activated by deep penetrating 980 nm near-infrared light to elicit rapid intracellular acidosis and associated apoptosis of the targeted prostate cancer cells.

Light-Activated Intracellular Acidosis (LAIA) by Vitanova Biomedical Video