Nanologica Creates Disruptive Spin-Off Company to Develop Treatment for Obesity

The Swedish high-tech company Nanologica spins off its asset within obesity into a standalone business distributed to the company's shareholders. The spin-off is done to speed up development of a new medical product for the treatment of obesity. The new company is named Sigrid Therapeutics and Co-Founder Sana Alajmovic will serve as the company's Chief Executive Officer.

Nanologica has for the past three years in collaboration with Professor Tore Bengtsson at Stockholm University researched and developed a treatment for obesity based on oral administration of porous silica. Studies show a significant decrease in weight and body fat composition in a standard obese animal model. The decrease in weight and body fat composition amounts to at least 5% over a six week time period. The treatment results in a reduction of body fat composition without signs of discomfort or toxicity, with conclusive results verified in repeated experiments.[1] Silica is in itself considered inherently safe with no systemic absorption or gastrointestinal effects. It is already an FDA-approved food supplement with no upper limit of intake.[2]

"Nanologica has a strong innovation engine which has resulted in a pipeline of several assets. We have previously successfully spun off a third generation solar technology company to our shareholders. The project within obesity has reached a stage operatively where it can and should stand on its own to faster reach the market”, says Andreas Bhagwani, CEO of Nanologica.

”Obesity has become the global epidemic of our time with more than half a billion obese people worldwide. We believe there is a significant unmet medical need for safe and effective treatments of the clinically obese and often very diabetic patients. It is therefore with great excitement and commitment to these patients that I assume the role of CEO for Sigrid Therapeutics”, says Sana Alajmovic, CEO of Sigrid Therapeutics.

Sana Alajmovic has previously worked as Head of Business Development for Drug Delivery at Nanologica where she has inked business deals with Russia in the east and the US in the west.

”Sana is extraordinarily ambitious, has business experience from the biotech industry globally and understands the technology. She has during her short time at Nanologica done an excellent job in negotiating several important business deals. Her task is now to establish Sigrid Therapeutics on a global market where the most important markets are North America, India and Europe”, says Andreas Bhagwani.

Nanologica will now focus on its main business areas; chromatography and drug delivery. Operations within chromatography are since the first quarter of 2014 being carried out in AstraZeneca's former facilities in Södertälje where the production has reached full commercial scale.

For further information, please contact:

Andreas Bhagwani
CEO Nanologica
Cell: 070-443 857
Email: andreas@nanologica.com

Sana Alajmovic
Co-Founder & CEO Sigrid Therapeutics
Cell: 072-389 3396
Email: sana@sigridthx.com

About Nanologica

Nanologica is a Swedish nanotechnology and materials development company focused on the development and commercialization of porous silica for novel applications in drug delivery, chromatography and therapeutics. The company was spun out from academic research at Stockholm University and Uppsala University in 2004. For more information, please visit www.nanologica.com

About Sigrid Therapeutics

Sigrid Therapeutics (Sigrid) is an innovative company focused on the development of patient-friendly therapies for the safe and efficacious treatment of obesity. Sigrid's lead medical product is based on oral administration of tailored porous silica in addition to food, resulting in a decrease of body fat and weight with no known side effects. Sigrid's therapeutic solution is the result of groundbreaking scientific research and intellectual property developed at the obesity and diabetes laboratory of Professor Tore Bengtsson at Stockholm University, with over 20 years of experience in metabolism, obesity and its related diseases.

[1] Large pore mesoporous silica induced weight loss in obese mice. Kupferschmidt N, Csikasz RI, Ballell L,  Bengtsson T, Garcia-Bennett AE. Nanomedicine (Lond). 2014 Jan 7

[2] www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/fcn/gras_notices/GRN000321.pdf