Prosonix receives £1.3m grant from the Biomedical Catalyst

Prosonix, a specialist pharmaceutical company based in Oxford, UK, has received a grant worth up to £1.3m from the Biomedical Catalyst to develop the company’s Multi-component particle (MCP) platform as a basis for new combination respiratory medicines.

The award will support a research consortium led by Prosonix that includes respiratory disease and drug inhalation experts Professor Peter Barnes and Dr Omar Usmani at Imperial College, Dr Ben Forbes at King’s College and Professor Rob Price at the University of Bath.

The work will apply Prosonix’ proprietary particle engineering technology to enable excipient-free, drug-only MCP formulations to be developed as inhaled combination medicines for the treatment of respiratory diseases, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

The grant will also support the development of living tissue-based models of the lung aimed at providing the most accurate information on the delivery, action and effect of inhaled combination therapies in these tissues.

Prosonix’ MCPs combine two active respiratory drug molecules in a pre-determined ratio in every particle in the formulation, without the need for additional excipients. They will be evaluated as part of the project to include optimally engineered combinations of known drugs products, including inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), long-acting beta-agonists (LABAs) and long-acting muscarinic antagonists (LAMAs).

This year Prosonix aims to select one or more MCP candidates, the first of its PSX2000 range, to enter into preclinical/proof of concept studies.