Science in the Triangle

Liquidia Technologies in Durham gets $20 million in venture capital, b3bio, a biotech startup in Research Triangle Park, teams up with pharma giant Roche in a big way and Prolacria, Inspire Pharmaceuticals’ dry eye drug, fails yet another late-stage trial.

Liquidia’s nanotechnology attracts more investors

Liquidia Technologies completed a third round of fundraising that added $20 million to the about $30 million in venture capital the Durham company had previously received from investors. The new cash will help get Liquidia’s first vaccine into clinical trials faster.

Founded in 2004, the company is developing nanotech delivery systems that use a material developed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The material is a clear, nonstick liquid at room temperature and hardens when exposed to ultraviolet light. Liquidia uses the material to make molds for particles so tiny, they’re small enough to slip into a human cell.

The goal is for the nanotech particles to deliver medicine more safely and effectively than pills, injections and inhalers.

Roche sets up a technology pipeline to RTP

Dani Bolognesi

B3Bio, a biotech startup in Research Triangle Park, signed a deal with pharma giant Roche that could turn the company into a brain trust of cutting-edge technologies.

The deal allows b3bio, a two-year-old company with 10 employees, to be Roche’s eyes and ears for drug development and delivery technologies that are in the works at universities. Technologies that suit both partners could then be nurtured at the Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences, where b3bio has its labs, before they are turned over to Roche for further development, said Dani Bolognesi, co-founder and chief executive of b3bio.

Bolognesi declined to talk about financial details of the deal. But as an incubator of new technologies, b3bio stands to gain from successful projects, particularly if Roche decides to buy the rights to a technology, he said. Other large drugmakers could follow Roche and become partners. Also, b3bio might add a technology it incubates to its own drug development efforts.

Read more here.

Inspire’s dry eye drug fails a third test

Prolacria’s record is now 2-in-3. The dry eye drug that Inspire Pharmaceuticals, a Durham pharmaceutical company, has been trying to get to market just failed its third late-stage clinical trial.

Inspire, which specializes in ophthalmic medicines, has spent more than $20 million on late-stage testing to get regulatory approval for Prolacria. About 2,500 patients have participated in the five tests. Following the second failed trial in 2005, Inspire negotiated for years with the Food and Drug Administration before an agreement was reached on two clinical endpoints - the measurements that would determine whether the drug would pass or fail the latest test.

When the test results from the fifth trial came in, Prolacria had failed to meet both key measurements.