Lead preclinical program, DRX-184 (d-S-bupropion), granted new US patent with term to May 2044.
BOSTON, April 23, 2025 -- DeuteRx, LLC, a biopharmaceutical company developing novel small molecule therapeutics, today announced that Chair, President, and CEO Sheila DeWitt, PhD, has been honored with two prestigious industry awards recognizing her groundbreaking contributions as a leader in drug discovery and biopharma entrepreneurship.
Dr. DeWitt was awarded the 2025 Kathryn C. Hach Award for Entrepreneurial Success by the American Chemical Society (ACS) for her achievements in deuterium-enabled therapeutics, microfluidics, and combinatorial chemistry. She accepted the award and delivered a lecture, "Reactions to Failure: Catalysts to My Success as a Drug Discovery Entrepreneur," at the ACS Spring Meeting in San Diego on March 23, 2025 (MEDI 4198051). Dr. DeWitt will receive her second award, the 2025 Gertrude Elion Medicinal Chemistry Award, at the ACS Fall Meeting in Washington, DC, on August 17. These two honors celebrate the legacies of trailblazers Kathryn Hach-Darrow and Gertrude Elion, and spotlight Dr. DeWitt's 35-year track record of innovation and leadership in pharma R&D.
"It is a tremendous honor to receive these awards that recognize the groundbreaking work of two exceptional women, Kathryn (Kitty) Hach-Darrow and Gertrude Elion. While these awards reflect my individual achievements, they also pay tribute to the exceptional contributions of the colleagues and collaborators that I have had the opportunity to work with over my career as a scientist and business leader," states Dr. DeWitt.
"Sheila's entrepreneurial achievements are vast in scope," said Dr. Bruce Ganem, Franz and Elisabeth Roessler Professor, Cornell University. "She has led the start-up or turnaround of nine biotechnology companies or business units and managed global R&D organizations with annual budgets of up to $30 million."
A recognized pioneer in deuterated drug development, Dr. DeWitt invented Deuterium-Enabled Chiral Switching (DECS), a unique approach to create new chemical entities (NCEs) with composition of matter patent protection and the potential for expedited and derisked drug development versus traditional R&D. Using deuterium to stabilize and characterize the desired stereoisomer provides a never-before-realized opportunity to deliver a superior therapeutic with improved efficacy or tolerability for patients. Under her leadership, the team has completed three M&A transactions and advanced a pipeline of over 10 deuterated drug candidates from preclinical to Phase 2.
DeuteRx is advancing several drug candidates including first-in-class NCEs for psychiatric, neuromuscular, dermatology, anti-infective, cardiorenal, and oncology indications. The lead program, deuterium-stabilized bupropion (DRX-184), is being advanced for major depressive disorder (MDD) with anhedonia. The compound was recently granted U.S. Patent 12,180,137, securing protection through at least May 2044.
About DeuteRx, LLC
DeuteRx is a privately held biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing differentiated new medicines with improved therapeutic profiles for patients. The company has pioneered DECS (deuterium-enabled chiral switching) to create differentiated NCEs with new composition of matter patent protection and the potential for an expedited and derisked development path. Success to date includes 3 M&A transactions, a Phase 2b NASH drug candidate (PXL065 in collaboration with Poxel SA), remarkable discoveries with DECS, and >50 issued patents.
For more information visit DeuteRx.com
DeuteRx
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