Date: Jul 16, 2013 Source: (
click here to go to the source)
PITTSBURGH
(PRWEB)
Jul
1
6
, 2013
--
Qrono
Inc.
today announced that t
he
Department of
Defense
(
DoD
)
Chemical Biological
Defense Program
awarded
Qrono a Small Busin
ess
Innovation Research
(SBIR
) Phase I g
rant
for $
150
,000
to
develop a long
-
acting injectable
formulation of
plasma
-
derived
butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE)
t
hat will
provide extended
prophylactic protection
to
W
arfighters
from the effects of organophosphorous nerve agents while
min
imizing the need for repeated administration
.
BuChE is a protein that occurs naturally in humans. Elevated blood plasma levels of
BuChE can provide prophylactic protection
against nerve agents
by scavenging nerve agent
molecule
s
before they can reach and
damage
terminal
nerve synapses.
Operational requirements
for certain types of missions make it impractical for health care providers to administer repeated
intravenous doses of BuChE
to
W
arfighters
in order to
maintain
this
protection
over the duration of
a mission.
Qrono's new long
-
acting injectable (LAI) BuChE formulation will have the
ability to
deliver and maintain sufficiently high BuChE concentration in the blood without repeated dosing
.
This
LAI
capability
will
enhance the ope
rational utility of BuChE as a prophylactic, particularly in
support of extended
-
duration missions in areas where health care providers are not available to
administer this prophylaxis.
"
This SBIR grant is an important step forward in executing our strateg
y of developing a
pipeline of long
-
acting injectable medications,
" said
Qrono CEO
Lar
ry Zana,
"
We are proud to
support the DoD in their efforts to protect
Warfighters
from these chemical threats
."
Qrono has
demonstrated the ability
of its
predictive modeli
ng
technology
, called
QronoMetrics™
,
to optimize
long
-
acting
injectable
formulation design
s faster (~95%)
, better
(reduced initial burst, reduced regulatory risk, reduced product
ion risk) and cheaper (~$1MM
)
tha
n
current best practice.
The grant
will
enable Qrono to
further
demonstrate
the utility of
QronoMetrics™
in
developing
LAI formulations
for
a wide range of
target pharmaceuticals in an unprecedented, rapid
period of time.
In Phase I,
Qrono will
develop
and demonstrate a 10
-
day release
LAI
formulatio
n
for
BuChE
.
Upon
successful completion of Phase
I, Qrono will be eligible to apply for Phase II
funding that will
generate
preclinical
data
and
demonstrate
in vivo
efficacy against nerve agent
challenge in
support of an investigational new drug (IND) filing with the FDA
.
Qrono CSO
Dr.
Sam
Rothstein
stated,
"
The sustained delivery of large molecule
therapeutics i
s an open problem with a large potential market and with direct applicability to
dozens of FDA
-
lic
ensed biologics
.
Our success in this project will demonstrate the capability of our
technology to design formulation
s
that deliver these large molecules over an extended period.
"
# # #
About
Qrono
:
Fully operational
since 2012
,
Qron
o Inc.
is a specialty pharmaceutical company enabling
the development of better medications, stronger patient adherence, improved patient outcome
s,
and faster time
-
to
-
market using
an innovative technology to create lo
ng
-
acting injectable (LAI)
formulations. These long
-
acting drug formulations enable a single administration of active
pharmaceutical ingredient to provide a therapeutic effect ranging from several days to many weeks
or months. Qrono collapses the time an
d cost to develo
p these formulations and
at the same time
reduc
ing
technical and regulatory risk.
Our pipeline strategy focuses on LAI formulations of drugs
with known safety profiles in therapeutic areas with either high non
-
adherence
(e.g., anti
-
psychot
ics)
, or where LAIs can solve drug delivery challenges
(e.g., oncology and medical
countermeasures)
.
For further information, please contact:
Larry Zana
CEO and Co
-
Founder
Qrono
,
Inc.
4551 Forbes Ave., Ste. 301
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Phone:
412
-
213
-
8788
Email:
lzana@qrono.com
Internet:
http://www.qrono.com
