Afraxis

Afraxis Inc. operates as a specialized contract research organization (CRO) focused on advancing preclinical drug discovery for central nervous system (CNS) disorders. The company's business model is centered on providing its proprietary technology platform and expertise on a collaborative, fee-for-service basis to pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners. Clients leverage Afraxis' services to accelerate their own drug development pipelines, gaining access to detailed neurobiological data that can guide medicinal chemistry and lead optimization efforts. The company generates revenue through these collaborations, which can include milestone payments for compounds that advance through clinical trials.

The core of Afraxis' offering is its patented Enhanced Spine Platform (ESP). This technology addresses the challenge of analyzing dendritic spines, the microscopic structures on neurons that are fundamental to signal processing in the brain and are often abnormal in CNS diseases like Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, and Fragile X syndrome. The ESP integrates specialized labeling of neurons, high-resolution imaging, and advanced statistical analysis to produce rapid, high-volume, and detailed readouts of synaptic networks. This allows for a system-level evaluation of how test compounds affect brain-wide synaptic structures, a critical bottleneck in traditional CNS drug discovery. The platform's efficiency, capable of assessing hundreds of thousands of dendritic spines per month, provides a significant advantage over slower, conventional methods.

The current iteration of Afraxis Inc. was established in April 2013 as a spin-out from Afraxis Holdings. This strategic move followed a major licensing deal where the parent company's therapeutic assets were acquired by Genentech, a subsidiary of Roche, for up to $187.5 million. This transaction allowed the new Afraxis Inc. to focus exclusively on the ESP service business. The original company, Afraxis Holdings, was founded in 2007 by Avalon Ventures, inspired by the work of Nobel laureate Susumu Tonegawa. The ESP technology was initially developed internally to support the search for treatments for Fragile-X Syndrome by providing a way to measure a key neurobiological marker of the disease.

The 2013 spin-out was led by Carmine Stengone, who became President and CEO, and Dr. Christopher Rex, who was appointed Chief Scientific Officer. Mr. Stengone brought over a decade of experience in pharmaceutical corporate development and strategic planning, having previously managed a $187.5 million license agreement with Genentech while at Afraxis Holdings. Dr. Rex was instrumental in the original development of the ESP technology, drawing on his deep expertise in the neurobiology of learning and memory from his research at the University of California, Irvine.

Keywords: contract research organization, CRO, CNS drug discovery, preclinical efficacy, neurotoxicity, dendritic spines, synaptic plasticity, Enhanced Spine Platform, neural networks, neurobiology, Fragile-X Syndrome, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, high-throughput screening, in vivo phenotyping, Structure-Efficacy Relationship, medicinal chemistry, Christopher Rex, Carmine Stengone, Avalon Ventures