Airmid is a privately held virtual pharmaceutical company based in Redwood City, California. Airmid is developing novel, potent, and selective blockers of potassium channel ion channels as novel, safer, and more effective medicines for a variety of autoimmune diseases that are inadequately treated by current therapies. These diseases include multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis.

Airmid currently has two drug candidates in the preclinical phase of drug development. These two compounds were originally discovered and characterized in the laboratories of three of Airmid’s founders, Dr. George Chandy (University of California, Irvine), Dr. Michael Pennington (Bachem Bioscience), and Dr. Heike Wulff (University of California, Davis). Dr. Chandy and his colleagues also discovered the molecular target of Airmid’s development candidates - a potassium channel called Kv1.3 that is highly and selectively expressed in effector memory T-cells, the lymphocytes that are thought to underlie the pathology of autoimmune diseases. Dr. Chandy and colleagues first hypothesized, then proved, that blocking Kv1.3 inhibits the activation and proliferation of autoreactive TEM cells.

One of Airmid’s Kv1.3-blocking development candidates is PAP-1. PAP-1 is a derivative of a naturally occurring compound isolated from a shrub, Ruta graveolens, or the Herb of Grace. PAP-1 is initially being developed as an oral drug for psoriasis and multiple sclerosis. Airmid’s other Kv1.3-blocking development candidate is a 37 amino acid peptide called ShK-186. ShK-186 is a derivative of a naturally occurring component of the venom of a Caribbean sea anemone, Stichodactyla helianthus. ShK-186 is being developed as an injectable drug for treatment of multiple sclerosis.

Airmid’s chief long-term goal is to translate the exciting discoveries of its founders into safer and more effective therapies for a variety of autoimmune disorders and, through them, bring relief to the millions who suffer from these devastating illnesses.