San-Diego based FeRx has received a slice of funding to support research to evaluate the use of its MagneTarg drug delivery system in the site-specific localisation of gemcitabine, a chemotherapeutic agent already approved for the treatment of pancreatic tumours.
The company claims that initial research from the $100,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant could eventually lead to pre-clinical and clinical development of an MTC-Gemcitabine product.
"This grant award recognises the need to develop an efficient, site-specific delivery and sustained release system aimed at improving the response rate and therapeutic outcome in the treatment of pancreatic tumours," said Jacqueline Johnson, president and CEO of FeRx.
"The proposed approach will attempt to maximise the concentration of gemcitabine in pancreatic tumors while minimising systemic exposure through site-specific delivery," she added.
The research company hopes that this latest grant will allow it to continue its efforts to expand the MagneTarg oncology product portfolio by focusing on tumours found in another organ of the human body. The principal investigator on the grant is Yuhua Li, the principal scientist at FeRx.
The sum, awarded by the National Cancer Institute of The National Institutes of Health (NIH), is part of a programme to encourage small businesses to 'discover and develop innovative biomedical products for the treatment of unmet medical needs.'