Welcome to VBS Pharmaceuticals

VBS Pharmaceuticals, a majority owned subsidiary of Vascular BioSciences, advances therapies in order to improve outcomes for vascular–based disease patients.

VBS Pharmaceuticals was initially formed as a partnership between Vascular BioSciences and Dr. Erkki Ruoslahti, M.D., Ph.D., Distinguished Professor at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to commercialize some of Dr. Ruoslahti’s scientific discoveries. VBS Pharmaceuticals targets vascular–based diseases.

VBS Pharmaceuticals has secured a worldwide exclusive license to intellectual property from The Burnham Institute for Medical Research relating to work done by Dr. Ruoslahti and Masanobu Komatsu, Ph.D. on their discovery of the role of the intracellular protein R-Ras in neointimal hyperplasia, angiogenesis and vascular proliferation. R-Ras is a small GTPase of the Ras family that regulates cell survival and integrin activity. Dr. Komatsu and Dr. Ruoslahti found that R–Ras exerts a strong inhibitory effect on mitotic and invasive activities of activated endothelial cells and vascular smooth muscle cells, and promotes quiescence of these cells. Their scientific finding of an unexpected role for R–Ras in blood vessel homeostasis will enable VBS Pharmaceuticals to target R–Ras signaling for therapeutic intervention in vascular diseases.

Our current pharmaceutical product pipeline is based upon Dr. Ruoslahti’s scientific findings of the mechanisms and pathways underlying vascular based diseases and expanded use indications discovered through the use of VBS Interventional’s endoarterial biopsy catheter.

VBS Pharmaceuticals has secured a worldwide exclusive license to intellectual property from The Burnham Institute for Medical Research relating to work done by Dr. Ruoslahti and Masanobu Komatsu, Ph.D. on their discovery of the role of the intracellular protein R–Ras in neointimal hyperplasia, angiogenesis and vascular proliferation.

The discovery of an unexpected role for R–Ras in blood vessel homeostasis will enable VBS Pharmaceuticals to target R–Ras signaling for therapeutic intervention in vascular diseases including atherosclerosis, solid organ tumors, sepsis, systemic and pulmonary hypertension, diabetic vasculopathies, acute respiratory distress syndrome, post–angioplasty restenosis, collagen vascular diseases and other conditions. The ability of R–Ras to promote vascular quiescence may also be useful in anti–angiogenesis therapies for cancer and the ex–vivo engineering of mature blood vessels.

VBS Pharmaceuticals is also pursuing in– and out–licensing opportunities with other pharmaceutical companies for expanded vascular use indications discovered and patented by Vascular BioSciences of existing approved drugs originally designed for non–vascular applications.