‘Company-Builder’ Picks Purdue-Connected Startup

A company with connections to Purdue University is one of 40 startups selected to participate in a global program designed to support entrepreneurship. Akanocure Pharmaceuticals was established using Purdue intellectual property. Its selection for the FOUNDER.org Class of 2016 sets the company up for guidance and a potential $100,000 in funding. June 5, 2015

News Release

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., and PALO ALTO, Calif. – Akanocure Pharmaceuticals, a pharmaceutical company based on Purdue University intellectual property, has been selected from hundreds of competing international teams reviewed by FOUNDER.org to be one of 40 startups in FOUNDER.org's Class of 2016.

FOUNDER.org is a startup investor and company-building program for young entrepreneurs who have the courage, ideas, talent and commitment to change the world. Akanocure Pharmaceuticals synthesizes and develops anti-cancer chemotherapeutic drugs derived from natural sources. Sherine Abdelmawla, Mohammad Noshi and P. L. Fuchs co-founded the company. Abdelmawla is the CEO, Noshi is the COO and president of R&D, and Fuchs is the Emeritus R. B. Wetherill Professor of Organic Chemistry at Purdue's Department of Chemistry and the company's CSO.

“My colleagues and I are honored that FOUNDER.org has chosen us as one of the 40 companies for its Class of 2016,” Abdelmawla said. “FOUNDER.org provides the resources to help entrepreneurs strengthen their companies during the yearlong program. Our team looks forward to becoming even more successful through the guidance and expertise offered through this program.”

Akanocure Pharmaceuticals, which is based in the Purdue Research Park of West Lafayette, also received assistance from the Purdue Foundry, an entrepreneurial and startup hub based in the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship. The company also won the Purdue

Elevate Venture Fund Black Award.

Each of the 40 teams in the FOUNDER.org Class of 2016 will receive up to $100,000 in funding awards. Each year, these entrepreneurs engage in 8D, the FOUNDER.org company building program designed to create a foundation for sustainable, fast-growing startups. Teams from 28 schools in nine countries kick off at the World Founder Forum in Stockholm on June 14-17 with the FOUNDER.org alumni companies. FOUNDER.org will announce this year's $10,000, $50,000 and $100,000 funding awards at the World Founder Forum.

Three startups led by Purdue University students were named to the Class of 2015 program: DATTUS, formerly Bearing Analytics, Medtric Biotech LLC and SensorHound Inc.

About Akanocure Pharmaceuticals

Akanocure's mission is to synthesize and develop biotargeted anti-cancer chemotherapeutic drugs derived from natural sources. Akanocure's pipeline will consist of analogs of fully validated, highly potent anti-cancer natural products that can only be produced on a large scale through Akanocure's proprietary CCC synthesis platform. The company has competitive edges on two fronts: the synthesis platform that gives Akanocure exclusive access to rare compounds and the potential pipeline of anti-cancer products that are far superior to existing therapies.

About FOUNDER.org

FOUNDER.org is a startup investor and company-building program for courageous young entrepreneurs who are solving the planet's biggest problems. The extensive 8D© Company Building Program introduces new founders to the Silicon Valley way of building a high impact company and establishes the foundation for hypergrowth. FOUNDER.org also provides the funding that teams need to get started, investing directly in companies from partner schools in nine different countries. FOUNDER.org was started by a team of serial Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who have built billion-dollar companies and are now working with the next generation of courageous young innovators to help them alter the future and transform our world in profoundly positive ways.

About Purdue Foundry

The Purdue Foundry is an entrepreneurship and commercialization hub in Discovery Park's Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship whose professionals help Purdue innovators create startups. The Purdue Foundry is managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, which received the 2014 Incubator Network of the Year by the National Business Incubation Association for its work in entrepreneurship. For more information about funding and investment opportunities in startups based on a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org.