Under the agreement, Cumberland Emerging Technologies (CET) is providing formulation, grant funding, regulatory and product development assistance in exchange for rights to commercialize the new technology.
The joint development project has received more than $190,000 in grant funding, including a recent Phase I grant award of nearly $112,000 from the National Institutes of Health under the small business technology transfer program. Additional grant funding was provided by the University of Tennessee Research Foundation (UTRF) and CET.
The grants will support continued study of a technology designed to prevent remodeling of airway smooth muscle and thereby reduce or eliminate asthmatic reaction in pediatric patients.
Dukhee Lew, primary investigator of the study, will conduct non-clinical studies to identify appropriate dosing for the drug. Upon completion of the non-clinical program, CET, the University of Tennessee and UTRF plan to seek additional grant funding to study the drug’s efficacy in patients.
A J Kazimi, CEO of Cumberland Pharmaceuticals and CET, said: Licensing this technology is an important milestone for CET. Not only are we adding a promising new product candidate to our development pipeline, we are also providing researchers with the resources necessary to advance this important work. This is precisely what we envisioned when we created CET to bridge the gap between the research laboratory and the commercial marketplace.