Ongoing Cancer R&D Efforts at Tosk, Inc.

Tosk
Image: Tosk.com

Brian Frenzel is an accomplished private investor and serial entrepreneur who has excelled in the life sciences industry. Over the course of a career spanning more than 30 years, Brian Frenzel has successfully led a number of companies and now works with Tosk, Inc., SanBio Co. Ltd., and AnVent Enterprises.

Tosk, Inc. is a drug discovery and development company committed to improving outcomes for patients suffering from the painful and debilitating side effects of widely-used cancer therapies and to enhance treatment options for patients who have not benefited from therapy. Tosk has two patented drugs in development, TK-90 for mucositis side effect reduction and TK-39 for cardiotoxicity side effect reduction, and has two other drug discovery programs underway. Tosk calls them CompanionTM drugs because they are designed to be administered alongside existing therapies.

The Company’s other initiatives include TK-88, which is intended to selectively block the adverse side effects of platinum-based drugs such as carboplatin, cisplatin, and oxaliplatin, and TK-kRAS which targets the human kRAS oncogene. Platinum drugs are effective, front line therapies for ovarian, breast, cervical, lung, head and neck, endometrial, and esophageal cancers which, unfortunately, also cause kidney damage, peripheral nerve damage, and hearing loss.

Tosk’s mutant kRAS gene initiative focuses on blocking the effects of this important cancer growth promoter. Also, according to the US National Cancer Institute, an estimated 40 percent of cancer patients worldwide carry an autogenic kRAS gene that effectively negates the efficacy of EGFR-inhibitor cancer therapies, such as Erbitux® and Vectibix®, to fight the disease. A kRAS product could both prove effective in treating kRAS positive cancers, including 90% of pancreatic and 45% of colon cancers, as well as making EGFR inhibitors effective in patients who currently do not benefit from treatment.

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Tosk Initiates Proof of Concept (POC) Studies for Cancer Drug TK-90

 

Tosk
Image: Tosk.com

An accomplished investor and entrepreneur focused on biomedical product development, Brian Frenzel has led several successful companies over the course of a career spanning more than thirty years. Brian Frenzel currently serves as an executive at Tosk, Inc., a Mountain View, California-based company that develops new drugs to reduce the side effects of cancer treatments and make certain cancer drugs effective in patients that currently do not benefit from therapy.

Tosk recently announced that it has completed Phase 1 human safety trials and initiated Phase 2 POC studies of its drug TK-90, which is designed to prevent or reduce the occurrence of mucositis during cancer therapy. Mucositis is the painful inflammation of mucosal membranes in the digestive tract that is a common adverse effect in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Aside from the suffering and risk of infection it poses, mucositis is costly to treat and often forces physicians to reduce or stop cancer therapy.

In addition to TK-90, Tosk is developing new drugs to block both the potentially fatal cardiotoxicity and kidney toxicity of certain cancer drugs. Tosk also has a program funded by the US National Cancer Institute to block cancer genes that promote tumor growth, such as the kRAS oncogene.

The Importance of Milestones in Early-Stage Company Growth

Milestones

As president and CEO of Tosk, Inc., Brian Frenzel leads an enterprise that develops biopharmaceutical products in the fight against cancer. Having successfully led more than a dozen startup companies, Brian Frenzel is a member of the early stage angel group, the Band of Angels.

One key element to the viability for any early stage venture involves setting and attaining appropriate milestones. This requires developing realistic timelines to guide the startup’s growth trajectory. Typical early milestones include additions to the team and attaining product development objectives. Milestones can also revolve around product launches and early profitability metrics.

These milestones are not simply for use in setting internally driven goals. Properly detailed and explained, they offer investors vital information on how to minimize risk while not losing out on the opportunities that early-stage investments present. The ideal time to reach out to investors to raise capital is just before or just after a key marker is met. This makes fundraising easier and increases the likelihood that the team can achieve more ambitious long term goals.

All About Angel Investing

Band of Angels
Image: bandangels.com

Brian Frenzel is an entrepreneur and investor based in San Francisco, California. Having worked at the highest levels of management in several successful businesses, Brian Frenzel joined the Band of Angels, an elite group of angel investors located in Menlo Park California, to provide capital to early stage, life science and high tech ventures.

Angel investors, known simply as angels, invest into start-ups with large upside potential. Although angel investing is one of the oldest forms of business funding, only a select group of businesses receive funding from sophisticated groups like the Band of Angels each year. Angel investors tend to seek companies that can grow on a large scale, and they look for opportunities that carry the promise of very high financial returns.

In addition to providing funding, angel investors can offer the benefit of their business experience and network of contacts to help young entrepreneurs and early stage companies. Having their own money on the line, angel investors have a strong motivation to see each of their investments succeed.