$50K Company Inception Loans buoy Agile, NeuroScience in RTP
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. June 29, 2009 — Two biotechnology companies spun out from research at local universities have each received $50,000 low-interest Company Inception Loans from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.
Agile Sciences, founded in 2007 by Ph.D. professors Christian Melander and John Cavanagh of North Carolina State University, is using the funding to help develop its proprietary, non-toxic organic compounds that can disperse colonies of microorganisms called biofilms.
The company says biofilms that form in the human body are up to 10,000 times more resistant to antibiotics and immune systems than free-floating bacteria, making infections very difficult to treat.
Also, billions of dollars' worth of agricultural crops are lost each year due to disease or spoilage caused by the formation of biofilms. Industrial needs for effective biofilm dispersion include surface coatings and cleansing products.
Pharmaceutical industry veteran Gabriel Cipau, Ph.D., is using the other loan to commercialize a line of brain-disorder therapies spun out of Duke University research labs.
Cipau, president and CEO of the new clinical-stage firm, NeuroScience Pharmaceuticals, said NeuroScience focuses on developing neurosteroid drugs. Neurosteroids are hormones that affect nerve cells in the brain and body. As a group, these compounds show promise as treatments for a range of conditions, including anxiety, depression, epilepsy and traumatic brain injury.
The firm is about to start testing its lead product, Pregnenolone, for the treatment of schizophrenia in two fully funded Phase II clinical trials.
"These loans help young companies through critical early business-development activities so they can be better positioned to secure outside funding or partnering," said Yonnie Butler, business development director at the Biotechnology Center.
"We're delighted companies like Agile and NeuroScience can move forward despite these tough economic times."
The Biotechnology Center is a private, non-profit corporation supported by the N.C. General Assembly. Its mission is to provide long-term economic and societal benefits to North Carolina by supporting biotechnology research, business, education and strategic policy statewide.
Contact: Chris Brodie, director of communications and media relations, North Carolina Biotechnology Center at 919-541-9366.