Date: 2013-01-07
Type of information: Grant
Company: Prosonix (UK)
Investors: Biomedical Catalyst Fund (UK)
Amount: £1.3 million
Funding type: grant
Planned used: The grant will provide matched-funding support for the pre-clinical development of Prosonix\'s Multi-component particle™ (MCP™) platform as a basis for future, new combination respiratory medicines.
Others: Prosonix has received a grant worth up to £1.3M from the Biomedical Catalyst. The award will support a research consortium led by Prosonix that includes internationally recognised respiratory disease and drug inhalation experts at three of the UK’s premier academic institutions: Professor Peter Barnes and Dr Omar Usmani at Imperial College, Dr Ben Forbes at King’s College and Professor Rob Price at the University of Bath. The work will focus on applying Prosonix\' proprietary particle engineering technology to enable excipient-free, drug-only MCP™ formulations to be developed as inhaled combination medicines for the treatement of respiratory diseases, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The award was announced by Technology Strategy Board and is one of 32 projects awarded funding totalling £39 million. These are the first substantial awards made from the £ 180 million Biomedical Catalyst programme managed by the Technology Strategy Board and the Medical Research Council.
The award will also support the development of cutting-edge living tissue-based models of the lung aimed at providing the most accurate information on the delivery, action and effect of inhaled combination therapies in these tissues.
Multi-component Particles (MCPs™) engineered by Prosonix that will be evaluated as part of the project include optimally engineered combinations of known drugs products, including inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), long-acting beta-agonists (LABAs) and long-acting muscarinic antagonists (LAMAs). In 2013, the Company aims to select one or more MCP™ candidates, the first of its PSX2000 range, to enter into formal preclinical/proof of concept studies.
Therapeutic area: Respiratory diseases
