Liquidia and Abbott Cooperate To Fight Cancer

One of the biggest challenges of cancer treatment is delivering drugs in a manner that destroys the cancerous cells without doing too much damage to healthy cells. The CEO of Liquidia Technologies hopes that a partnership between his company and Abbott Laboratories will help to advance a solution to that problem.

The agreement grants Abbott Laboratories (Abbot Park, IL, USA) a license to use Liquidia Technologies' (Research Triangle Park, NC, USA) proprietary nanoparticle technology in the delivery of a class of RNA molecules that, in essence, can inactivate genes that cause disease. Such RNA therapies, known as small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), are quickly gaining recognition but face a major hurdle as it is difficult to deliver them to the specific cells that need to be treated. Liquidia's PRINT technology will be used to create nanoparticles that are precisely engineered to deliver Abbott's siRNA therapies to specific cancer cells, according to Liquidia CEO Neal Fowler.

Nanoparticles are measured in billionths of a meter. Liquidia's technology platform allows for the custom design and production of such particles. With drug delivery, "what our technology allows you to do is to load [drugs or RNA treatments] into particles that go to the cells you want them to go to,” said Mr. Fowler.

Financial terms of Liquidia's deal with Abbott were not released, but according to Mr. Fowler, the most significant aspect of the deal for his company is that it provides validation of the PRINT platform. The ability to deliver drugs to precise cells could represent a huge prospect both for Liquidia and for patients who suffer from the side effects of chemotherapies that kill healthy cells along with cancer cells.

Liquidia was founded in 2004 based on discoveries made by Joseph DeSimone, who holds a joint professorship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA) and North Carolina State University (Raleigh, USA). The company has raised US$24.5 million in two venture capital rounds.

Abbott Labs is a 68,000-employee global operation that produced $26 billion in 2007 revenue.

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