AOX Pharma Oy is a University of Tampere (UTA) spinout drug development company that is based in Espoo, Finland. We licensed-in the patent "Alternative oxidase and uses thereof" (WO2007051898A1) owned by UTA.

Our vision is to save the lives of infants who born with fatal mitochondrial deficiencies, improve the quality of life and the health of patients suffering from incurable mitochondrial diseases and their families, and to become a global center for knowledge for patients, families, and clinicians of mitochondrial deficiencies.

Our mission is to develop a new therapeutic platform to address health unmet needs by utilizing a natural solution from marine invertebrate. AOX Pharma Oy will primary focus on developing treatments for infantile fatal COX deficiencies conditions, a rare form of mitochondrial disease. 

We develop innovative therapy based on a mitochondrial gene originated from the sea squirt, Ciona intestinalis, to combat rare COX deficiency conditions often causes death in infants. The gene, which is absent in humans, encodes a protein that functions as a safety valve in the mitochondrial process and it maintains the energy production once it is halted by toxins or as a result of genetic insult. It was previously shown that AOX gene expression: (i) normalized life-span in mice carrying a mutation causing a lethal human disease in early infancy, (ii) significantly increased survival rate of mice suffering from acute sepsis, and (iii) completely protects from lethal doses of cyanide and other mitochondrial toxins such as airborne toxins. 
 
The company recently raised a seed investment and got a grant from Business Finland to initiated preclinical studies using a cyanide intoxication mice model (COX toxin). We will use the AOX (by AAV delivery) as a proof-of-concept (PoC) for the potential therapy in COX deficiencies conditions.

AOX Pharma Oy

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