The two-year, $582,763 grant will be used to develop Biodel’s proprietary glucagon to deliver it as part of a bihormonal closed loop system to mitigate hypoglycemic events.
Biodel president and CEO Errol De Souza said Biodel received another award to improve diabetes treatment therapies from NIH.
"Biodel has a great deal of expertise in developing stable glucagon formulations for the treatment of severe hypoglycemia and our lead program is targeting an NDA submission in early 2014,” Souza added.
”We will leverage this expertise and concentrate the resources funded by the SBIR on utilizing our proprietary technology to produce glucagon formulations that support the development of effective artificial pancreas therapy."
The use of glucagon to nullify the glucose lowering effects of excess insulin is expected to enhance the feasibility of fully automated artificial pancreas systems, to further prevent hypoglycemia occurrence.
The research is supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health.