SER

Serina Therapeutics is ocated at the HudsonAlpha Institute of Biotechnology in Huntsville, Alabama. Not Boston or San Francisco. And unlike the majority of biotech companies, their founding and funding did not follow the traditional, institutional venture capital route.

From their founding in 2007 up until their going public merger transaction in March 2024, they had been largely funded by their founders and investors in the Huntsville life sciences and technology community. These investors followed the team to Serina after the successful exit (via acquisition by Nektar Therapeutics) of the founding team’s prior company, Shearwater Polymers.

At Shearwater, Serina co-founders Dr. Milton Harris and Dr. Michael Bentley developed the first-generation of “PEGylated” drugs. PEG (polyethylene glycol) technology became the standard for delivery of protein drugs and has enabled 30 FDA approved products that have since generated over $140B in cumulative sales. Serina was founded to engineer a next generation polymer therapeutic (our POZ PlatformTM) to address the limitations of PEG and other biocompatible polymer technologies — enabling new treatment paradigms for patients suffering from some of the world’s most challenging diseases.

Serina’s proprietary POZ technology is based on a synthetic, water soluble, low viscosity polymer called poly(2-oxazoline). Serina’s POZ technology is engineered to provide greater control in drug loading and more precision in the rate of release of attached drugs delivered via subcutaneous injection. The therapeutic agents in Serina’s product candidates are typically well-understood and marketed drugs that are effective but are limited by pharmacokinetic profiles that can include toxicity, side effects and short half-life. Serina believes that by using POZ technology, drugs with narrow therapeutic windows can be designed to maintain more desirable and stable levels in the blood.

Serina’s POZ platform delivery technology has potential for use across a broad range of payloads and indications. Serina intends to advance additional applications of the POZ platform via out-licensing, co-development, or other partnership arrangements, including the non-exclusive license agreement with Pfizer, Inc. to use Serina’s POZ polymer technology for use in lipid nanoparticle drug (LNP) delivery formulations.

Serina’s POZ Platform^™ provides the potential to improve the integrated efficacy and safety profile of multiple modalities including small molecules, RNA-based therapeutics and antibody-based drug conjugates (ADCs).   

SER 252 is an investigational apomorphine therapy developed with Serina’s POZ platform and designed to provide continuous dopaminergic stimulation (CDS). CDS has been shown to reduce the severity of levodopa-related motor complications (dyskinesia) and enable greater on time, with reduced off time, in advanced Parkinson’s patients. SER-252 leverages strategic partner Enable Injections’ enFuse^™ wearable drug delivery platform to enhance patient comfort and convenience, providing CDS to patients via an easy-to-administer, long-acting subcutaneous injection without skin reactions.