Apr 16 2015
InMed Pharmaceuticals Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company that specializes in developing safer, more effective cannabinoid-based therapies, today announced that it has been awarded a grant to further develop the Company's proprietary nanoparticle-based delivery system for their leading drug candidate CTI-085 for glaucoma.
Initial formulation, in vitro & in vivo development is currently underway in collaboration with members of the Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering at the University of British Columbia. The grant from Mitacs, a leading Canadian non-profit organization that accelerates innovative projects through strategic academic and industry collaboration, is partially funding the ongoing development of the delivery system and is the second grant awarded to InMed from Mitacs.
The Mitacs grant was awarded to Dr. Maryam Kabiri, Ph.D., a researcher with extensive experience in developing nanoparticle-based delivery systems. Dr. Kabiri will be working with Prof. Vikramaditya G. Yadav, whose research focuses on metabolic & enzyme engineering and customized novel biosynthetic enzymes that can convert biomass-derived feedstock into better fuels, pharmaceuticals and value-added chemicals. In conjunction with InMed, the Mitacs grant will be utilized to develop a novel delivery system for glaucoma therapy.
Dr. Sazzad Hossain, Chief Scientific Officer, states, "We are pleased to have met the Mitacs funding criteria for the advancement of our proprietary glaucoma delivery system. Not only does this bring us closer to our goals of initiating our Phase 1 trial, but it furthers our business development strategy of having a proprietary delivery system that can be licensed with existing drugs endangered by patent expiration. This "therapy extension" strategy used by drug makers can be a valuable asset to InMed upon successful completion of the program. Additionally, the incorporation of an existing medicine into a new drug delivery system can significantly improve its performance in terms of efficacy, safety, and improved patient compliance."
Source: http://www.inmedpharma.com/