Bringing
Hope for Life
to Patients
Welcome to Biomed Valley Discoveries. We are a clinical-stage biotechnology company on a quest to make a meaningful difference for patients and their families.
Our Story
Guided by Our Founders’ Intent
Staying true to our roots in Kansas City, Missouri, we are guided exclusively by our founders’ intent of hope for life as we focus on translational and clinical efforts in areas of significant unmet need with as broad a scope as possible.
Our Model
Our Novel Model to Make a Difference
Our uniqueness starts with our funding model. The Stowers Group of Companies receives stable and sustainable resources through private institutional funding via American Century Investments, an asset management firm. The Stowers Group of Companies includes the non-profit Stowers Institute for Medical Research (Stowers Institute), and the for-profit Biomed Valley Discoveries, Inc. (BVD), which is wholly owned by a supporting organization of Stowers Institute. Our founders’ original directive that any profits would accrue to Stowers Institute’s benefit promotes a perpetual, virtuous cycle of scientific innovation and translation to advance breakthrough medicines.
Biotech,
Purposefully
Reimagined
Our secure funding, in turn, has freed us to break the mold and create a purposefully reimagined approach to every aspect of our business, our pursuit of groundbreaking medicines, and our commitment to patients.
Risk-Tolerant Candidate Sourcing
We are empowered to pursue early development assets that are often higher risk but high opportunity for patients that may not fit within the investment profile of traditional industry or investor firms.
Deep, Data-Led Scientific Interrogation
We bring a deep level of scientific rigor to de-risking programs, working diligently to deliver focused data that supports whether a program or direction shows promise to address the target unmet need.
Extensive Collaborator Network
We focus on early-stage development through clinical proof-of-concept. Our extensive network of physician research collaborators and centers of excellence serve as true partners in our development efforts.
Lean, Flexible Corporate Infrastructure
Based in Kansas City, we minimize infrastructure and overhead, operating primarily as a remote team while leveraging a large external network. We are able to deploy resources in a stage-appropriate, prioritized and real-time manner to meet the scientific needs of each program.
Unmet Need-Focused Clinical Exploration
We leverage a myriad of clinical activities – BVD-sponsored and investigator-initiated trials, and compassionate use and expanded access programs – to seek early signals and stay focused on the unmet patient need.
Partner/Out-Licensing Centric
Once we have de-risked candidates, we seek partners with infrastructure and expertise more suited for the next stage of development to the broadest range of potential indications to carry the asset forward to commercialization.
Our Programs
Breakthrough
Science to Address
Unmet Medical Needs
The common thread across our programs is novel science and biology with the potential to address significant unmet needs in cancer and other serious conditions and deliver on our founders’ intent of hope for life.
Ulixertinib (BVD-523)
PHASE 2 ONGOING
Highly selective, first-in-class ERK 1/2 inhibitor designed to block the terminal node of the MAPK pathway
TEM8/ANTXR1 Therapeutic Antibodies
Preclinical
Harnessing an over-expressed protein in the tumor microenvironment as a lamp post to guide novel antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs)
Clostridium novyi-NT (CNV-NT/BVD-550)
Phase 1 Completed
Revitalizing the promise of bacteria to target tumors’ necrotic core and destroy tumors from the inside out
DID YOU KNOW?
Thousands of people are impacted by MAPK pathway-driven cancers. Many of these cancers become resistant to treatment, with the pathway becoming reactivated despite an upstream inhibitor. We believe ERK inhibition is a critical and untapped strategy to address MAPK pathway cancers. Since ERK occupies the last node in the pathway, and many of the resistance mechanisms still rely on ERK signaling to drive disease, a tolerable and effective ERK inhibitor represents an important strategy for the treatment of MAPK pathway-driven cancers.
What’s New?
Our collaborators at MD Anderson will present a poster at the Society for Neuro-Oncology (SNO) Annual Meeting highlighting data from a window-of-opportunity trial evaluating our investigational ERK 1/2 inhibitor, ulixertinib, in adults with MAPK-activated lower-grade gliomas. The poster shows that ulixertinib penetrates the blood/brain barrier and has demonstrated early signals of efficacy in this population. If you’re at SNO, stop by poster # CTNI-46 during the poster session on Friday, November 22, 7:30-9:30pm, in Hall B3.