Date: Feb 20, 2019 Author: Liz Young Source: bizjournal (
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A company in Schenectady is developing a drug harvested off the backs of leafcutter ants.
Leafcutter ants don't eat the leaves they gather -- they essentially farm them. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin found when the ants' farms attract pests, a fungus living on the ants' exoskeletons secretes an antibiotic.
"They figured that out and they figured out how to make the fungus on the ant and the pest from the garden in the same test tube, figured out how to get them to express their antibiotic so these could be harvested," said Paul Ambrose, who leads the Schenectady company, Symbiotica Inc., that is behind the project. "So Symbiotica is the home for some of these drugs, these very early drugs."
Symbiotica is a spin off of another company, the Institute for Clinical Pharmacodynamics, that works with clients as large as GlaxoSmithKline to figure out effective doses for pharmaceuticals. In a region with an expanding biotech presence, ICPD has grown to 30 employees over the past 15 years without attracting much local attention along the way.
Now, it's moving into drug development with Symbiotica, which recently received a $150,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to push its studies of ants and other animals toward one day becoming a drug.
Ambrose was recruited to the area from Buffalo with his two business partners in 2004 by Richard Liebich. Liebich founded the Ordway Research Institute, which helped make the Albany area a destination for biotech and medical research. The Ordway filed for bankruptcy in 2011.
Liebich brought Ambrose here to start the Institute for Clinical Pharmacodynamics and bolster drug development in the Albany region.
The life sciences sector has been growing in the Albany region, with 5,723 jobs in 2017, up from 3,750 in 2011. There are more than 100 biotech firms here, according to the region's economic development council report. Biopharmaceutical companies, medical device makers and academic medical centers contributed $16 billion toward the region's economic activity in 2015.
The Institute for Clinical Pharmacodynamics focuses on infectious disease treatments such as antibiotics, antivirals and antifungals.
"We forecast what the effective doses are going to be in people for anti-infective agents, and we're probably the only company in the world that I'm aware of that solely is dedicated to doing that," Ambrose said. "We are involved with most antibiotics that are in late-stage development."
ICPD's other clients include Roche Pharmaceuticals; and smaller companies, like Boston biotech firms Spero Therapeutics and Entasis Therapeutics. ICPD has previously done work for Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb. It also works with the U.S. government. At any given time, the company is working with 20 or so clients.
The company moved its headquarters to a new building on Broadway in Schenectady in 2016 from Latham. It has a Buffalo office as well.
The Institute for Clinical Pharmacodynamics has been growing consistently, Ambrose said.
"Our revenue grows every year, and our people. They go hand in hand," Ambrose said.
