Auritec receives funding for maternal-infant transmission of HIV
Pasadena, CA, August 8, 2005
Auritec Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is pleased to announce the receipt of a Small Business Innovation Research grant sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. The grant will fund work on preventing mother-to-infant transmission of HIV during breast-feeding.
It is estimated that in 2003, breast-feeding caused the infection of 331,000 children in Africa. A Phase III trial is underway to study daily oral nevirapine to be given to infants in order to reduce transmission. We have developed a platform technology for the sustained release of a broad range of drugs by subcutaneous or intramuscular injection. The long term goal of this project is to develop injectable sustained release subcutaneous anti-retroviral drug delivery systems in order to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV through breast-feeding. These injections could be piggybacked onto existing accelerated immunization schedules.
The Specific Aims of this Phase 1 proposal are to formulate sustained release suspensions of nevirapine, test the sustained release formations into buffer and to test the in vivo pharmacokinetics and safety of the formulation in rats.
Auritec is pleased to continue its collaboration with Dr Roger Jelliffe, MD. Dr Jelliffe is a Professor of Medicine and the Director of the Applied Pharmacokinetics Laboratory at the University of Southern California. He is the primary author and developer of the USC*PACK Clinical Pharmacokinetics Computer Program. He has published extensively on clinical pharmacokinetics. Dr Jelliffe is on the editorial boards of journals in the fields of therapeutic drug monitoring and computers in medicine. He was Chairman of the Pharmacometrics Section of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics and is a recipient of the Award for Research Achievement in Clinical Medicine from the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists.
Auritec is also pleased to collaborate with Dr John Sullivan, MD, for the completion of this project. Dr Sullivan is a Professor of Pediatrics, Program in Molecular Medicine and Director of the Office of Research for the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Sullivan's research interests are focused on viral pathogenesis with a strong interest in HIV-1 and herpes virus pathogenesis. He has had a long-term interest in clinical trials and participated in the discovery and development of the first FDA approved non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, nevirapine. Dr. Sullivan pioneered the use of nevirapine for the prevention of maternal-nfant transmission of HIV-1, a treatment now being implemented throughout the developing world.
Auritec Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a small company based in Pasadena, California, specializing in innovative, extended release drug delivery systems. Auritec was founded by Thomas J Smith, MD and Gary Ransom. Dr Smith was previously Medical Director and Chairman at Control Delivery Systems, Inc. (CDS), where he was the co-founder, PI on key patents and remains a significant shareholder. Dr Smith is joined on Auritec's management team by Gary Ransom, a seasoned international business executive, who focuses on strategy, marketing and business development.
Auritec has developed a novel approach to extended release drug delivery with implications so far for indications including schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease, arthritis, herpes and HIV/AIDS. Auritec’s primary objective is to develop and test the use of its Plexis platforms in a wide range of drug classes, and subsequently license the technology to key partners to continue development, trials and eventual commercialization.