SEATTLE, Washington, July 23, 2012 — The Life Sciences Discovery Fund (LSDF) today announced nearly $570,000 in awards in its inaugural corporate grant program to support commercialization of new health and health-care products by four early-stage Washington-based companies.
Three of the new "PreCede" grants focus on improving the management of serious medical conditions. Glenn Kawasaki of Carepeutics, Inc., will test a technology for predicting patient responses to anticancer drugs to inform treatment decisions. Tom Sanko of EchoGuide Medical, Inc. (formerly Harpoon Navigation, Inc.), will develop and test an ultrasound-guided system for placing catheters in the brain to drain excess cerebrospinal fluid. Robert Wilcox of Viket Medical Corporation will test a new approach for removing blood clots from the brains of individuals who have suffered a type of stroke called intracranial hemorrhage.
The fourth grant, to Thomas Schulte of Nexgenia, Inc., will optimize and scale up novel reagents to improve the speed and sensitivity of clinical assays for diagnosing various diseases.
The PreCede grant competition is designed to help position early-stage Washington life sciences companies for near-term equity investment. PreCede grants support research and development activities focused on validating the commercial merit of promising health-related technologies.
"LSDF has provided grant funding since 2007 to accelerate the movement of promising technologies into the commercial marketplace," stated LSDF Executive Director John DesRosier. "Today's grants represent LSDF's first dedicated mechanism to provide funding directly to companies. We have been encouraged and heartened by the strong support of and interest in this grant program from Washington's life sciences sector."
Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association President Chris Rivera noted that PreCede grants meet a vital need within the state's life sciences community, particularly in the current funding climate. "These grants support activities such as 'proof of concept' studies and prototype construction and testing that are critical for attracting angel and venture capital investment to complete development and successfully launch new products."
The PreCede awards were chosen from the eight proposals reviewed in the competition. National experts recruited by the American Association for the Advancement of Science evaluated the scientific and technical merit of the projects, and panels of commercialization and financial experts assessed each project's commercial potential and possible health and economic benefits. The LSDF Board of Trustees made the final award selections.
"A robust for-profit life sciences sector in Washington is critical for commercialization and market penetration of new products, which are in turn expected to lead to both health and economic benefits for our state," explained Lura Powell, chair of the LSDF Board of Trustees. "The board is pleased to use PreCede grant funding to both move new health-related products forward and foster the development of the state's for-profit life sciences community."
LSDF will continue to offer grant funding for both for-profit and non-profit Washington organizations, with granting programs to be announced in August 2012. Additional information will be posted on the LSDF website at http://www.lsdfa.org/ as it is available.
Funding for PreCede grant awards comes from Washington's allocation of payments under the Master Tobacco Settlement Agreement of 1998, revenues arising from multi-state litigation with tobacco product manufacturers.
The Life Sciences Discovery Fund, a Washington state agency established in May 2005, makes grant investments in innovative life sciences research to benefit Washington and its citizens.
BACKGROUNDER INFORMATION
LIFE SCIENCES DISCOVERY FUND 2012 PRECEDE GRANT COMPETITION AWARDS
Glenn Kawasaki, Carepeutics, $120,000
Project Title: Drug Distribution and Activity in Cancer Patients
Project Focus: To test a technology for predicting patient responses to cancer drugs
Cancer patients do not respond uniformly to treatment. A drug that may cure one person may be ineffective in another, and delays in treating patients with appropriate therapies can be lethal. Carepeutics is developing a novel diagnostic method to predict patient responses to cancer drugs. The company's initial focus is glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a deadly brain cancer that is often treated with temozolomide (TMZ). However, only about 50% of patients respond to TMZ. In the proposed studies, GBM patients at Swedish Medical Center will be given lightly radiolabeled TMZ before tumor removal, and Carepeutics and Accium BioSciences personnel will analyze patient specimens to identify molecular profiles that are associated with poor responses to TMZ. Success with GBM could allow Carepeutics to expand its technology to other diseases with larger markets.
Tom Sanko, EchoGuide Medical, Inc. (formerly Harpoon Navigation, Inc.), $150,000
Project Title: A Test in Humans of a Disposable, Ultrasound-Guided Catheter
Project Focus: To test an ultrasound-guided device to place catheters in the brain for drainage of excess fluid
One of the most common life-saving emergency neurosurgical procedures is the placement of a catheter to drain fluid from ventricles in the brain and reduce pressure caused by traumatic brain injury, hydrocephalus, or other conditions. Most of these procedures are performed using external anatomical features to approximate location of the ventricle during insertion. The resulting error and complication rates are high, with up to 60% of procedures resulting in incorrect placement and as many as 25% requiring a revision procedure to correct the placement. While technologies exist to more accurately guide catheter placement, they are complex and time-consuming, preventing their use in critical-care settings. EchoGuide Medical is developing an ultrasound-guided catheter placement device to address the high placement error rate of the unguided procedure while maintaining the speed and efficiency lacking in existing navigation technologies. By providing neurosurgeons with an intuitive and real-time indication of the direction and depth of the ventricle within the patient's brain, the EchoGuide device will directly improve patient care for this critical emergency procedure. The proposed study will validate the ability of the company's prototype device to localize human ventricles.
Thomas Schulte, Nexgenia, Inc., $150,000
Project Title: The Scale-up and Optimization of Smart Magnetic Nanoparticle Synthesis
Project Focus: To improve the manufacturing process for novel clinical assay reagents
Nexgenia is developing reagents to improve the speed and sensitivity of immunoassays, which are critical tools for diagnosing infectious diseases, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and metabolic and hormone disorders. Nexgenia's technology consists of "smart" magnetic nanoparticles (mNPs) and polymers that can be conjugated to antibodies against various biomarkers. When a stimulus is applied, the mNPs and polymer-antibody-biomarker conjugates rapidly form aggregates that can be separated for analysis. These reagents represent a platform technology that Nexgenia plans to sell or license to clinical immunoassay manufacturers and life sciences technology companies. The goal of the proposed work is to refine and optimize mNP synthesis and manufacturing processes to commercial product levels of scale and efficiency, which is expected to enable further product evaluation by potential customers and partners.
Robert Wilcox, Viket Medical Corporation, $149,860
Project Title: MITT - Minimally Invasive Transcranial Thrombectomy
Project Focus: To test a catheter that removes intracranial blood clots from stroke patients
Hemorrhagic stroke affected more than 2,000 Washingtonians last year. Half of all victims die within one month; most survivors require support for the remainder of their lives. In 2010, the direct cost of hemorrhagic stroke in Washington was $274 million ($12.7 billion in the US). Recent preclinical and clinical evidence supports evacuation of stroke-related blood clots through minimally invasive surgery to improve patient outcomes. Viket has designed a catheter that is compatible with familiar neuronavigation imaging equipment and that can be used to remove clots in minutes. The tip includes an ultrasound proximity sensor to help surgeons avoid healthy brain tissue. In the proposed study, Viket will test its second-generation catheter design in a human skull model and cadavers.