Date: Mar 09, 2012 Author: Tracey Druray Source: bizjournals (
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by Tracey Drury
Buffalo Business First Reporter- Business First
After exceeding performance milestones, Photolitec LLC will receive $1 million in funding from its Chinese partner, the second payment in a five-year funding agreement.
The company last year announced the partnership with Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd, a leading pharmaceutical group based in Zhejiang, China. It sought to develop cancer imaging and therapy technology for both photodynamic therapy (PDT) and how it can be used for surgery and chemotherapy.
An initial $2 million investment was to be followed by annual payments of $1 million, based on meeting performance milestones, says Ravindra Pandey, Photolitec founder and chief scientific officer.
"If we fulfill those milestones, we get the money. They realized we are doing pretty good," he says. "Things are going really well."
Hisun also agreed to pay an additional $355,000 to enable the purchase of an optical imaging instrument for use on small animals to support technology development and testing. Pandey says the equipment, manufactured by Caliper in Hopkinton, Mass., is the best optical imaging instrument available, capable of creating a 3-D view by co-registering optical images from PET, CT and MRI scans.
Pandey says the device will allow researchers to determine the bio-distribution of the drug in the tumor and other organs and do more precise image-guided therapy.
"The physician can co-register it so they have a better feel for the cancer and then they can decide whether to do surgery or whatever therapy they want to do," he says. "This instrument will be extremely useful. This is the best instrument in the world."
The device will be installed at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, where Photolitec leases operations space. He says it's possible the device may be available to other researchers, as well.
Photolitec was founded in 2010 as a spin-off of Roswell Park Cancer Institute.
