Water works

industry. Here, Eran Gabbai, CEO, CTO and inventor of Neowater describes how the technology could revolutionise research and development in the sector.

NGP. What is water-based nanotechnology, and how is it developed? What are its uses for pharmaceutical companies?
EG. Water is an essential part of a living system. At Do-Coop, we’ve speculated that we need to do a physical modification of the properties of water in order to better support the life science industry. The technology itself is based on nano-particle production and involves shifting the physical properties of water, and making it a better environment for molecular interaction in general. In fact, it can enable solubization as well as the stabilization of delicate molecules such as enzymes, proteins and hydrophobic small molecular compounds in the entire industry.

NGP. A new class of water-based nanotechnology materials are poised to become the first generation of “dopedwater” materials. What implications would these developments bring for the life sciences industry?
EG. We believe there are three major value propositions that we can give to the industry with Neowater. The first of them is the translation from in vitro to in vivo will be much more efficient, less costly and will arrive just in time in market. There are differences today between the environment the industry faces on the bench versus the environment found inside the living system. From our point of view, we think the difference is in the water state. If you can imagine these properties outside the body, and conduct a proper study with these precious molecules in such an environment then implementation in vivo will be much easier. This is the first value proposition.

The second is regarding the preservation of delicate molecules. Today, in the entire business, one of the challenges is fighting against free water molecules / activation energy. This is why it is necessary to freeze things in order to better preserve them. This is possible to do with our Neowater technology by preserving them to the same quality but in room temperature conditions. Following this route is a way of fighting the cold chain. This is one of the elements that people try to solve because freezing adds a lot of costs to a product and risks recovery.

The third value proposition involves an IP extension of existing portfolio of companies. If you defined your precious IP molecules by chemical language, and you change the modification to the environment and get different properties, then you’re entitled to a new IP.

NGP. Can you explain Neowater, how it differs from regular water, and what benefits the technologies would bring to the R&D process?
EG. In general, what we refer to as water, scientists refer to as the intracellular water that we have inside our system and it is different from regular bulk water, this is because the water inside the living system possesses much more structure.  This is an essential phenomenon that allows the cell to work in low concentration of chemistry. Otherwise, these cells would be toxicated. If you try to duplicate these in the R&D process then you must have an inert system, otherwise you will influence your biology reaction. The Neowater gives you the ability to mimic most of the environment that you have inside your body and to do an efficient invitro study with it.

Unfortunately, sometimes it is hard to introduce new ways of thinking to the industry. We are not a producer of products with Neowater, but see ourselves as a technology and IP company.  We need to convince the industry of the benefits of the solution by producing some proof of concept in the shape of a product. Our PCR mix freeze free product demonstrates these capabilities by preserving enzymes at room temperature, and gives a good performance without a freezing step.

Our web site (www.docoop.com) gives examples of semi-formulations of drugs that we’ve already done with Neowater, just to show the capabilities of the technologies. We do not produce products with Neowater. Instead, we license the technology to companies in the existing market, for them to have an edge over their competition with the use of our technology.

NGP. Are there any challenges associated with using Neowater?
EG. There are a few challenges today in the industry. Chemists used to use their reactions as if they were homogenous in a stable state. With Neowater it is possible to do some localities and push the reactions through these unique conditions. It is a new paradigm and, therefore, really challenging to convince or to train the market to think in this way.

We need a door opener in order to encourage future partners to try the technology. Which is why we need to prove the science behind Neowater by publishing peer review papers, and informing the industry of the proven properties of Neowater. If we can meet these challenges then we will achieve substantial penetration into the existing market.

NGP. What kinds of feedback have you had back from the scientific community, and can you maybe give an example of a successful deployment of Neowater?
EG. There has been a mixture of opinions. This is because past studies of water, such as poly water, were not properly carried out. As a result, this has created a bad image around water science. Nevertheless, although there are some negative approaches being taken in water science, we intend to be on the frontier. This is why we are supporting a new journal on science of water. Finally, scientists are beginning to use scientific language in their water studies. We are seeing a blooming of papers about water properties and water modification, which is in stark contrast to the situation in the 80’s.

NGP. What does your regulatory review of Neowater involve?
EG. The regulatory position as it stands is that Neowater is like water and no toxicity is expected out of it. Actually, we have done a toxicity study with Neowater and have submitted a DMF to the FDA. We submitted a DMF because it’s category of water that cannot be compared against any of the products that are known to the FDA. Customers can cross-reference our DMF number.

NGP. Looking to the future, what developments do you envision at the company for the next 12 to 18 months?
EG. In the next 12 to 18 months, we expect to have license agreements with small and medium-sized entities. We would like that the big boys in the market to deeper look into our technology and to recognise its commercial value. I’m not sure that in 18 months we will be able to raise the value of the technology in the eyes of the entire industry, but we surely expect to have some agreement that shows the merits of the technology even on a small scale.

Eran Gabbai is the inventor of Neowater, and the entrepreneur who founded Do-Coop Technologies Ltd. and manages it as its President and CTO. He has collaborated on studies in various fields and has also worked on nanotechnology research.