New Drugmaker Has Roots In Century-Old Business Deal In Delaware County
By Ian Bush
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- One of the Philadelphia area's newest pharmaceutical companies is celebrating its ties to one of the oldest.
Cutanea Life Sciences is in the Chesterbrook section of Wayne, Chester County. Its parent, Maruho Company, is a dermatology specialist based in Japan but founded in 1915 in Glenolden when a visiting businessman signed on the line to sell Mulford Labs' products overseas.
Now, a hundred years later, Cutanea CEO Bob Bitterman says the relationship frees his firm to innovate.
"The parent company has been extremely generous in doing all of the funding for our development," he says. "That's been a gift, especially in an industry where the cost of drug development continues to escalate."
Cutanea's focus is creating treatments for skin diseases and disorders, including rosacea, HPV, and psoriasis.
While many current acne medications are topical antibiotics, Bitterman says Cutanea's is different:
"The program that we're working on -- the molecule is called an anti-microbial peptide," he explains. "It essentially eliminates any risk of creating a bacterial resistance issue. So in that regard, we think we're making a significant improvement toward treating a condition with a drug that's not systemically absorbed and is very mild to the patient in terms of its side effects."
Cutanea employs 33 people at its Tredyffrin Township HQ.
"It's not only a convenient location but also a friendly business environment in which to operate," Bitterman says.
