BioXell: Leveraging vitamin D3

Roche's latest spinout, BioXell S.p.A., looks more like a relatively mature biotech company than a startup. The Italian biotech, founded in March, has a compound in clinical trials, preclinical programs close to the clinic, and an interesting arrangement with Roche for drug discovery.

BioXell's main focus is developing vitamin D3 analogs as therapeutics for bone-related diseases, psoriasis, and cancer. In addition, the company plans to exploit expertise in TREM receptors (Triggering Receptor Expressed on Myeloid cells) and gene expression profiling. ...