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Harmonic Pharma targets the pharmaceutical industry, biotechnology companies, and, generally, any organization with a portfolio of molecules of therapeutic interest.

The pharmaceutical industry is facing a new challenge in the current post-genomic era: how to adapt the drug discovery process which was originally aimed at finding global blockbusters to one which characterises and takes into account the biological variability and individuality of patients? Thus, there is a need to profile candidate drugs against a wide range of biological targets, and this calls for new ways to characterise and compare drug candidates. We believe spherical harmonic representations satisfy this need.

Conceived within the team Orpailleur of the Loria, the company has been founded by Michel Souchet, PhD, who has 20 years of experience in drug design in different pharmaceutical and biotech organizations. Stéphane Gégout has a strong experience in business development and innovation, and has joined the company as General Manager. The executive board includes three senior scientific advisors: Bernard Maigret, PhD, Directeur de recherche at CNRS, expert in molecular dynamics; Marie-Dominique Devignes, PhD, Chargée de recherche at CNRS, expert in integration and use of biological databases; Dave Ritchie, PhD, expert in protein modelling and virtual screening, and laureate of Chaire d’excellence for structural system biology at INRIA.

Harmonic Pharma has developed a unique solution based on intensive basic research at CNRS and INRIA. The company offers a specific way of determining the « therapeutic potential » of your compound collections. The solution derives from an innovative approach for designing molecular interactions combined with the use of proprietary knowledge databases. Spherical harmonics which inspired the company’s name is a powerful means of characterizing shapes of molecular objects (e.g. ligand, ligand binding domain, protein-protein interaction cavity). This approach can be combined with molecular dynamics in order to investigate flexibility of proteins. It is suitable for determining the fit between biological targets and ligand molecules (protein, peptide, chemical compound) at a proteome scale (several thousands of protein targets).

Michel Souchet, CEO, says:

« We can actually participate in different phases of the drug discovery and re-evaluating process. The main interest for you will be to get expert know-how coupled with a fast and efficient end-user oriented solution, guided with the critical pieces of knowledge of your preferred field. The solution has the capacity to address different aspects of leveraging the value of existing molecules for instance by: • Identifying spherical harmonic based similarities between your molecules and reference molecules and biological targets of therapeutic interest. • Aggregating relevant data linked to a new potential biological activity of candidate drugs. Altogether, the solution will improve the life cycle management of your molecules by (re)positioning them in new therapeutic areas ».