RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK -Oriel Therapeutics is introducing its dry powder inhaler technology to the pharmaceutical community at the biannual Respiratory Drug Delivery Meeting, held in Tucson AZ this week.
Oriel Chief Technology Officer Timothy Crowder will present the company’s technology to the Inhalation Technology Focus Group, part of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. In the presentation entitled “Oriel’s Window on the Future,” Crowder will discuss what he sees as the benefits of the technology as well as the performance data on which it is based, the company says. The RDD Meeting is the eighth in an academically-sponsored international conference series devoted to current biological and pharmaceutical issues in aerosol drug delivery.
Crowder, a founder of Oriel Therapeutics, recently completed his Ph.D. in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The primary inventor of the company’s aerosolization approach, his dissertation research forms the basis for the Oriel technology platform.
Oriel says its technology, based on a decade of research by Chief Scientific Officer Anthony Hickey, will provide asthmatics and others suffering from pulmonary and respiratory diseases with a better drug delivery method. The company’s dry powder inhaler technology applies an electronic signal to a dry powder inhaler that allows the device to drive the delivery of the drug rather than the patients’ own efforts. The technology monitors a user’s breath and makes adjustments to energy for dispersion, ensuring the correct dosage is delivered with every use.
Oriel says its next step is to partner with pharmaceutical companies to develop and manufacture inhalers using the technology. Oriel says its research will allow for quick evaluation of the necessary parameters to aerosolize a pharmaceutical company’s drug powder, so partners will be able to minimize formulation development time, leading to early clinical testing.
A UNC-Chapel Hill spin-out company formed six months ago, Oriel Therapeutics, has raised $1 million in seed money. The company, based in Research Triangle Park, is seeking more funding.
Oriel Therapeutics: www.orieltherapeutics.com
