About

About  AXIM BIOTECH

Founded in 2014, AXIM® Biotechnologies, Inc. (AXIM) is a vertically integrated research and development company focused on improving the landscape for the diagnosis of ophthalmological conditions such as Dry Eye Disease (DED) through rapid diagnostic tests. 

AXIM’s mission is to improve the life of patients worldwide through the development and commercialization of diagnostic solutions for a variety of medical conditions. 

AXIM owns two of the only five FDA Cleared Diagnostic tests for Dye Eye Disease. Through a partnership with Verséa Ophthalmic, LLC, AXIM solutions are available to clinicians throughout North America. 

Beyond AXIM’s ophthalmological solutions, AXIM has worked extensively on other diagnostic tools in the areas of ophthalmology and COVID-19 antibody detection. Both programs are ongoing. 

In addition to its FDA-cleared tests and on-going research, AXIM is working with clients across the country on development of new and innovative diagnostic solutions. 

 

Facility  Highlights

Facility  
Highlights

Axim Biotech is located in the Sorrento Mesa area of San Diego, California that is home to numerous emerging and established biotechnology companies. San Diego’s biotechnology zone contains the third largest concentration of biotechnology companies in the world, R&D sites for several major pharmaceutical companies, and prominent biomedical research institutions such as UCSD, The Salk Institute, The Sanford-Burnham Institute, and Scripps Research Institute. Because of the density of biotech companies in the area, local contract service companies are able to provide rapid turnaround services. Our laboratory currently consists of about 2,000 sq ft of mixed labs for chemistry, assays, molecular and cell biology. Equipment in the lab includes an 8-feet chemistry hood fully equipped for synthetic chemistry, a dedicated tissue culture room and dedicated BSL2 enclosure for conducting biomedial studies.

PROVEN  MANAGEMENT

PROVEN  
MANAGEMENT

JOHN W. HUEMOELLER II

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER | AXIM BIOTECH

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Over 35 years of experience in financial markets in C-level positions. John brings focused approach to product development pipeline, focused on speed to market and cash management.

CATALINA VALENCIA, J.D

CO-FOUNDER & CEO | SAPPHIRE BIOTECH

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Results-oriented entrepreneur that specializes in leading businesses to success through the strategic development of businesses and products.  Valencia brings extensive management experience with biotechnology startups including her leadership of early-stage Genentech.

DR. SERGEI A. SVAROVSKY, PH.D.,

CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICER AND CO-FOUNDER | SAPPHIRE BIOTECH

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Dr. Svarovsky is the scientific founder of Sapphire Bio, Inc. He brings to the Company a breadth of experience and expertise from his academic, government and industry careers in the fileds of medicinal chemistry and medical diagnostics. He has authored over 25 peer reviewed publications, reviews and book chapters, contributed to at least 20 international and U.S. patents and participated in over 50 international symposia. Some of his patents has been licensed by Pfizer, BioRad, among others. He serves on Editorial Boards of several international journals in the fields of chemistry, medical technology and nanotechnology and is a reviewer for a number of national and international funding organizations including National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Israeli Science Foundation, and Georgian Science Foundations. Dr. Svarovsky obtained a PhD in Physical Organic Chemistry and MBA in Finance from University of West Virginia in 2000. Prior to entering the biopharma industry, Dr, Svarovsky served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry at the National Cancer Institute. In 2006 he became an Associate Professor the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University where he met with another co-founder of Sapphire Bio, Dr. Douglas Lake. Dr. Svarovsky joins Axim Biotechnologies, Inc in the role of Chief Scientific Officer with a mission to develop novel therapeutics modalities and diagnostics for the treatment and detection of cancer.

ALIM SEIT-NEBI, PH.D.,

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER AND CO-FOUNDER | SAPPHIRE BIOTECH

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Dr. Seit-Nebi co-founder of Sapphire Biotech Inc., leads the development and implementation of new antibody and protein-based technologies in diagnostics and therapeutics. Prior to joining Sapphire, Dr.Seit-Nebi was leading the development and production of antibodies, recombinant proteins, biomarkers, and immunoassays for diagnostic and therapeutic applications for industry and academia, serving at various roles at GenWay Biotech, Inc. for more than 11 years. Dr.Seit-Nebi’s an expert in a broad array of biochemical, genetic, molecular, and cellular biology methods with detailed knowledge of signaling pathways in inflammation, oncogenesis, and cell stress response. He co-authored 39 peer-reviewed articles in prestigious peer-reviewed life-science journals. He received a doctorate in molecular biology from the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology in Moscow, Russia, in 2002, and then pursued his research interests in immunology and molecular biology as a postdoctoral fellow at The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA.

MARIA GONZALEZ-MOA, PHD

Vice President | Product Devleopment

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Dr. Maria Gonzalez specializes in Nanoparticle probes and lateral flow immunoassays.  DDTD, Janssen and NanoComposix. 

Bijan Pedram, MSC.

Senior Research Scientist | Medicinal chemistry

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After completing his Master research at the University of Toronto’s Chemistry and Biochemistry Honors Program, Mr. Pedram pursued a career in synthetic organic chemistry. His work included the upscaling of custom-made chemicals, rational drug design and drug discovery in medicinal chemistry using both classic and modern synthetic approaches. Bijan’s research focused on the design of target molecules for unmet medical needs including Selective Nuclear Receptor Modulators (SNRM’s) for stimulating specific tissue growth, in which his efforts provided three clinical candidates: a progesterone modulator, an androgen modulator, and one compound now marketed as LGD-3303. His past work also included protein kinase inhibitors, cystic fibrosis cellular targets, Sodium Channel SAR, IRAK4, and Granulocyte Colony- Stimulating (GCSF) factors. Since 2016 Bijan joined research areas in the design and development of lateral flow immunoassays. Bijan’s work at Drugs and Diagnostics for Tropical Diseases (DDTD) was critical in bringing a LOA lateral Flow test to the market as well as a test for Buruli Ulcer disease in collaboration FIND Diagnostics. In 2020, he joined Axim Biotech to develop ophthalmic diagnostic tests for inflammation, allergy, and dry eye diseases. Mr. Pedram co-authored more than 30 patents and a handful of peer-reviewed research papers.

IP  PORTFOLIO

EYE HEALTH

Title: TEAR SAMPLE COLLECTORS, SYSTEMS AND METHODS 

US Provisional Patent Application No. 63/307,987 filed February 8, 2022.

Exclusive Assignee: Axim Biotechnologies, Inc. 

Tear fluid analysis contributes to the greater understanding of various ocular and systemic diseases and obtaining adequate samples for tear analysis requires effective collection methods. Most tear sample collectors on the market use capillary designs as tear sample collectors. These designs are intimidating to the patient when a sharp looking object is approaching the eye, are difficult to use by untrained personnel and are expensive to manufacture. Examples include a wick type tear sample collector that does not have any fill-up indicator and is rather intricate to produce on mass scale, Q-tip designs, filter paper strips (Schirmer’s test) which are imprecise, some are difficult to produce en masse. The invention relates to a laminated and looped tear sample collectors that is: 1) Cost-effective to produce on mass scale 2) Feature a fill-up indicator (in case of laminated version) 3) Easy to use 4) Soft and non-intimidating to user and patient.

Title: TESTS FOR HUMAN MONOMERIC LACRITIN 

 US Patent Application No. 63/301,437 Filed January 20, 2022

Exclusive Licensee: AXIM Biotechnologies, Inc. 

The invention relates to a Rapid Point of Care test for Human Monomeric Lacritin. Lacritin is a tear protein that, in its monomeric form, autonomously promotes tearing and ocular surface survival. Lacritin is the only identified growth-like factor decreased in tears from patients with ocular surface inflammation resulting from blepharitis, and it is downregulated in contact lens-related dry eye. This provisional describes six different lateral flow assay designs for the detection of monomeric lacritin from human tears to diagnose blepharitis, Sjögren’s syndrome, Dry Eye Disease and other inflammatory conditions or as a companion diagnostics at point of care settings.

DIAGNOSTIC TESTING

RECOMBINANT PROTEINS AND METHODS FOR DETECTING NEUTRALIZING ANTIBODIES

Title:  MOLECULES AND RELATED ASSAYS, TEST KITS AND METHODS 

US Provisional Patent Application No. 63/378,673

Filing Date:  October 6, 2022

Assignee:   Axim Biotechnologies, Inc. 

Various recombinant proteins, test kits, test kit components and methods for detecting and measuring first and second different antibodies are provided in the invention.  In some aspects, a test kit and method for detecting and measuring “binding antibodies” (for example, non-neutralizing antibodies) as well as “functional antibodies” (for example, neutralizing) in a single test and at the same time are demonstrated.  Such test kit and method can advantageously improve the diagnosis and therapy of various diseases. 

COVID 19 DIAGNOSTIC TESTING

Title: RAPID LFA DIAGNOSTIC TEST TO MEASURE LEVELS OF NEUTRALIZING ANTIBODIES TO SARS-CO-2 FROM WHOLE BLOOD 

US Provisional Application No. 63/144,454 Filed February 1, 2021; US Provisional Application 

No. 63/152,774 Filed February 23, 2021; PCT/US2021/032106

Assignee: Axim Biotechnologies, Inc. 

The invention methods and test kits can be used with any sample in which the presence, absence and/or quantity of neutralizing antibodies (Nabs) to SARS-CoV-2 is desired to be determined, such as for example, serum, plasma, whole blood, saliva, mucous, and other biological fluids. In a particular embodiment, the invention methods and/or kits are used with whole blood.

Title: TESTS FOR DETECTION OF NEUTRALIZING AND NON-NEUTRALIZING ANTIBODIES AND RELATED METHODS 

US Provisional Patent Application No. 63/275,856 

Filing Date: November 4, 2021

The invention relates to the detection of the percent neutralizing to non-neutralizing antibodies in a single test. Totality of non-Nab provides information on the presence of general innate immune response Nab test determines serum neutralizing activity. Ratio Nab/Non-Nab provides percent of protective Abs.

Title: ASSAY FOR NEUTRALIZING ANTIBODY TESTING AND TREATMENT Continuation-in-Part 17/590,353 filed February 1, 2022 to US Provisional Application 17/319,08 filed May 12, 2021

Assignee: Axim Biotechnologies, Inc. 

The invention diagnostic test is intended for semi-quantitative measurement of neutralizing antibodies in plasma, serum or whole blood of persons who have had recent or prior infection with SARS-CoV2 or have received a COVID-19 vaccine.

Title: ASSAY FOR NEUTRALIZING ANTIBODY TESTING AND TREATMENT 

Continuation-in-Part 17/726, 431 filed April 21, 2022 of US Provisional Application 17/319,08 filed May 12, 2021

Assignee: Axim Biotechnologies, Inc.

The invention diagnostic test is intended for semi-quantitative measurement of neutralizing antibodies in plasma, serum or whole blood of persons who have had recent or prior infection with SARS-CoV2 or have received a COVID-19 vaccine.  A sequence listing was filed with the application relating to the implementation of new variants to SARS-CoV-2 into the invention diagnostic test to detect neutralizing antibodies. 

PROPRIETARY COMPOUND

Title: DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGINEERED SARS-COV-2 RECOMBINANT PROTEIN VARIANTS 

US Provisional Patent Application No. 63/252,908 

Filing Date: October 6, 2021

Assignee: Axim Biotechnologies, Inc.

The invention differentiates between antibodies that bind to the virus but do not neutralize and those that do bind and neutralize the virus. COVID-19 vaccines do not induce high levels of neutralizing antibodies in all recipients AXIM’s second generation test provides users with a test that shows if they responded to their COVID-19 vaccine and a semi-quantitative analysis of their neutralizing antibody levels in a single test. 

Title: SUPER-ACE2 VARIANTS 

US Provisional Application No. 63/081, 811 filed September 22, 2020

Assignee: Axim Biotechnologies, Inc.

The invention relates to a new variant recombinant protein of ACE2 identified as ACE2-614-Fc (“Super ACE2”), that is more potent and has a longer shelf life and is more stable than wild type ACE2. Super ACE2 variant can be used in development of competitive assays for neutralizing antibodies that disrupt RBD- ACE2 interaction.

ONCOLOGICAL

DIAGNOSTIC TESTING FOR VARIOUS CANCERS

Title: SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR RAPID DIAGNOSTIC FOR VARIOUS CANCERS Provisional Patent Application No. 62/829,556 filed April 4, 2019;

Utility Patent Application No. 16/841,521 filed April 6, 2020

International Patent Application No. PCT/US2020/026936 filed April 6, 2020

Assignee: Axim Biotechnologies, Inc. 

QSOX1-L, a splice variant of QSOX1, has been identified as a novel biomarker of bladder cancer and possibly other cancers in serum. Proprietary antibodies have been generated that selectively detect only this variant and not others. QSOX1-L has been used to develop a rapid and cost-effective diagnostic test for bladder and possibly other urologic cancers from urine.

INHIBITION OF TUMORS AND CANCER

Title: COMPOSITIONS, COMPOUND AND METHODS FOR NEOPLASTIC CELL GROWTH INHIBITION OF TUMORS AND CANCERS 

US Provisional Patent Application No. 63/280,553 filed November 17, 2021

 Assignee: Axim Biotechnologies, Inc.

The present invention generally relates to compositions, compounds and methods for the treatment of various tumors or cancer and cell growth inhibition.