Endowed chair program prompts biotech company’s relocation to Charleston

Apogee Biotechnology Corp., which discovers and develops new pharmaceutical agents for the treatment of chronic and life-threatening diseases, is relocating from Hershey, Pa., to Charleston.

Charles D. Smith, Ph.D., Apogee’s president and CEO, was selected to fill MUSC’s third endowed chair under the Centers of Economic Excellence program funded through the South Carolina Education Lottery.

Smith will direct MUSC’s new Drug Discovery Core, with the goal of identifying and developing compounds with potential therapeutic value. His research interests center on the development of anticancer drugs, specifically for breast cancer. He is also interested in the development of compounds for HIV, acute renal failure, diabetic retinopathy and arthritis.

Apogee is funded by several SBIR grants from the National Institutes of Health and controls a portfolio of pending patents that describe several classes of novel compounds and their uses for the treatment of a variety of diseases. The company focuses on the early stages of drug development and typically out-licenses active agents for late-stage clinical development, production and marketing.

The company is still seeking adequate web lab space in the area and is expected to relocate by February.