BioCentury
ARTICLE | Targets & Mechanisms

Ace of hearts

Beat BioTherapeutics takes aim at heart failure with dATP-boosting gene therapy

February 19, 2015 8:00 AM UTC

Less than two years after coming out of stealth mode, University of Washington spinout Beat BioTherapeutics Corp. has shown preclinical proof of concept for its heart failure gene therapy designed to provide dATP as an energy source instead of ATP. The startup is hoping the data will help it raise series A funding to finance IND-enabling studies and test the concept in humans.

Progress in treating heart failure has been slow, as companies have shied away from the development and commercial risks in a field that has seen high-profile failures in clinical trials and a market full of cheap generics. But there is still a large unmet need, with the five-year mortality rate after a heart failure episode at almost 50%...