Nanotechnology Now - Press Release: "Madison-Area Pharma Company Receives NIH Grant"

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Abstract:
NanoMedex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a Fitchburg pharmaceutical company, recently was notified that it will be awarded a $2.23 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II Continuing Renewal grant from the National Institute of Health. The grant will provide funding for NanoMedex to complete clinical development of its first product, Microfol™, and file for the drug's approval with the FDA.

Madison-Area Pharma Company Receives NIH Grant

Madison, WI | Posted on December 12th, 2009

"Microfol is a version of propofol that employs a microemulsion technology developed by NanoMedex to offer important advantages to the medical community, particularly in the areas of safety and cost," said the company's president and CEO, David L. Cooper, PhD, MD. "The SBIR award will further our efforts to bring Microfol to market and, we believe, demonstrates continuing NIH support for our formulation technology that may be applied to other drugs. NanoMedex now has the resources to focus on building a pipeline of proprietary products."

NanoMedex proprietary pharmaceutical formulation strategies, initially developed by scientists at the University of Florida, Gainesville, and exclusively licensed from the University of Florida Research Foundation provide a method to have fat soluble pharmaceutical products be dissolved in water or saline based solutions to ease administration.

"We intend to explore additional drug formulations for the microemulsion applications which will allow these drugs to be administered intravenously in a hospital environment," Cooper said. "Both patients and health care providers tend to prefer IV medications as they can be administered without waking a sleeping patient or presenting difficulty for patients who may have trouble swallowing."

Furthermore, according to Cooper, Medicare and private insurance typically provide better reimbursement for drugs that are intravenously administered rather than orally.

"Reformulating already approved drugs can shorten the FDA approval process from decades to just a few years," Cooper added, "and we will continue in our efforts to raise investment dollars to pursue that path in 2010 with additional products."

Earlier this year, NanoMedex moved its corporate headquarters and research and development lab to Dane County from Alachua, Fla. The move was endorsed by Gov. Jim Doyle and made possible in part by grants and potential tax credits offered by the Wisconsin Dept. of Commerce under the recently passed Accelerate Wisconsin Tax Credits. Previously NanoMedex qualified and was awarded existing state grants designed to attract new business to Wisconsin totaling $290,000. The initial funding round for NanoMedex was led by Wisconsin's premier seed capital fund, Kegonsa Capital Partners (KCP) of Fitchburg. KCP and the Kegonsa CoInvest Fund also were the lead and principle investors in NanoMedex's second round of funding.

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About NanoMedex
NanoMedex Pharmaceuticals Inc., was initially headquartered in Alachua, Fla. near Gainesville and is currently located in Fitchburg, Wis. near Madison. It has patented rights to an innovative and proprietary formulation technology based on the utilization of nanotechnology for fatty-based drug solubization. The technology utilizes components that encapsulate the active pharmaceutical ingredient of drugs into spheres so small they allow the drug to become randomly dispersed in water. NanoMedex is now building a pipeline of drug products based on already FDA approved active pharmaceutical ingredients that are reformulated with the NanoMedex formulation strategy for intravenous administration to man. The Company focus is on new drug products for aging patients administered in the hospital environment.

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