Hello everyone. I have received dozens of inquiries about the status of Ichor's C60 research program. I wanted to provide a brief update on our plans for 2017.
DISCLOSURE: Ichor is developing C60 as a potential pharmaceutical product. I have an equity position in our C60 program. Ichor does not currently sell any C60 product. I do not hold financial positions in any company that does sell C60 products.
Update:
We are repeating several of our pilot studies to confirm our preliminary findings that most C60oo suppliers provide product that contains toxic by-products. These results should be in by the end of January 2017. Assuming our initial findings hold up, we will compile our existing data and publish these findings in a peer-reviewed journal. We are drafting the paper currently, but our major focus at the moment is preparing for our series A investment for our lysoSENS AMD program, which is much further along than the C60 program.
The take home is that no product tested in my laboratory from any vendor has consistently met quality control parameters claimed. Most vendors cannot provide any quality control data. Those that have, provide data of poor quality that cannot be replicated in my hands with sample tested. I am supremely confident in our analysis. My analytical chemistry team is top notch.
Based on our pilot work (which suggests C60 is viable, but will be involved to develop properly), much of our recent focus has been identifying a translational path for C60 as an anti-aging drug. This is complicated by many factors. For example, olive oil is not chemically defined and is a poor vehicle from a QA/QC perspective. C60 is clearly not stable in olive oil and its by-products are toxic, so alternative vehicles should be tested. Existing regulatory strategies to develop anti-aging drugs do not exist. The mechanism of action for C60's positive effects is unknown. C60 persists in the body and does not seem to be eliminated in a significant way. C60 is not found in appreciable quantities in any foodstuff so development as a supplement or nutraceutical is not viable. C60 must be developed as a drug to make a reasonable business case for the development costs. It is unclear what specific non-aging indications C60 may be useful for treating (i.e. we need a conservative business case using a traditional drug development strategy to de-risk the anti-aging moonshot). Answering these questions will require additional advisers, licensing several major patents in the space, etc.
We are sorting through these issues now and have a very solid plan emerging. I expect to make an announcement about this by July 2017, hopefully sooner.
I do apologize for being tardy on replying on this forum. We've been super buried with our research. If you have specific questions please do feel free to reach out to us at info@ichortherapeutics.com.
