Friday, August 1, 2008

Little nanoparticles could be big in drug delivery

By Ryan McBride

The ability to design nanoparticles to deliver drugs has been chronicled in science journals for several years, yet more recently the ultra-tiny materials have emerged as some of the hottest commodities in the biotech business.

Though years away from the market, nanoparticle technology has attracted blue-chip venture firms betting on its potential to make treatments more accurate in hitting disease targets and less toxic in the body. At least three New England biotech startups focused on nanoparticles have formed over the past two years, while other firms in the field have sprung up in other parts of the U.S.

“I think that the technology is coming of age,” said Amir Nashat, a general partner at Waltham-based Polaris Venture Partners, who serves on the board of Bind Biosciences Inc., a Cambridge developer of nanoparticle-based drugs. “The technologies are starting to show promise in animal models and that’s starting to spur early stage (investment).”

With close ties to leading researchers in the nanoparticle field at MIT and Harvard University, Polaris has become one of the leading investors in the technology. The venture firm has backed companies in the field such as Bind and Tempo Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Cambridge. Nashat said his firm is working on a third, undisclosed nanoparticle drug startup.

Bind, which has raised $18.5 million in two rounds of venture capital, was formed in 2006 with technology licensed from the labs of chemistry professor Robert Langer at MIT and physician Omid Farokhzad of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

The startup’s nanoparticles are covered with structures called ligands, intended to attach to certain proteins and cells in diseased tissue, according to the company. Once attached, the nanoparticles contain polymers designed to release drugs at specific times. The firm plans to initially focus on treatments for cancer and cardiovascular diseases, and its first clinical trial is slated for 2009.

Also using technology licensed from MIT, Tempo launched in 2006 to develop so-called nanocells. A single nanocell, which is a nanoparticle made of polymers, is engineered to carry two or more drugs and release the treatments at different times to optimize the therapeutic affects of each one, according to the company. One of its nanocells, for instance, carries a drug to kill tumor blood vessels. After the cancerous blood vessels die, the nanocell releases a chemotherapy drug to kill the cancer cells.

Venture capitalists have swooned at Tempo’s science, investing $22 million in VC through two rounds of funding and a seed round over the past two years.

In New Haven, Conn., Carigent Therapeutics Inc., which has licensed patents from Yale University, launched in 2006 to advance nanoparticle drugs. Its drugs function similar to those of Bind but with different chemical properties, said Seth Feuerstein, CEO and cofounder of the startup. Though Carigent has been less aggressive in raising VC dollars, he said, the biotech has struck deals with unnamed corporate partners to apply its technology to deliver other firms’ drugs. 

“I think in a lot of ways advancements in (nanoparticle technology) over the last several years are colliding with a clear need for drug delivery technologies,” Feuerstein said.