Heparinex Receives $1.6-Million Award to Enable CMC for Proprietary Delivery Technology

Heparinex, LLC recently announced the company has received a $1.6-million fund endowment from the Economic Development Generating Excellence program (EDGE). Heparinex and the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center have discovered a drug delivery technology that utilizes sugar polymers to more safely and effectively deliver drugs used in the treatment of a number of diseases.

“The EDGE funding is additional recognition and validation of our groundbreaking drug delivery technology that provides a superior alternative to currently available technologies. It facilitates opportunities for Heparinex and Caisson to address unmet market needs.”

A problem in the pharmaceutical industry exists where drugs are excreted too quickly from the body thus requiring multi-daily injections. Alternatively, some drugs are attacked by the body. The Heparosan-based Drug Delivery System addresses problems such as these by allowing drugs to stay in the body longer, thereby increasing activity. This drug delivery technology greatly benefits both patients and pharma companies.

The EDGE award will help Heparinex and its wholly owned subsidiary, Caisson Biotech, LLC by enabling process development, documentation, and characterization of heparosan as a drug delivery agent. Caisson Biotech is already working with industry partners to commercialize a number of heparosan-conjugated drugs and is seeking additional partnerships in various drug markets.

“The EDGE funding is additional recognition and validation of our groundbreaking drug delivery technology that provides a superior alternative to currently available technologies,” said Breca Tracy, PhD, Managing Director, Heparinex, LLC. “It facilitates opportunities for Heparinex and Caisson to address unmet market needs.”

Heparinex and Caisson Biotech are funded and managed by Emergent Technologies, Inc., a leading investment and management company focused on early stage technology and life sciences.

“The EDGE award positions Caisson to expand operations and scale to increase its number of industry partnerships as well as to evaluate potential development of its own proprietary internal drug pipeline,” added Thomas Harlan, Emergent Technologies’ CEO.

By utilizing proprietary methods to manufacture heparosan (a naturally occurring sugar in the body) and its derivatives, Caisson offers its Heparosan-based Drug Delivery System as a safer delivery vehicle and alternative to PEG (poly[ethylene glycol]). The Heparosan-based Drug Delivery System is the process of conjugating a naturally occurring sugar molecule, heparosan, to a drug. It has many potentially bio-superior attributes over PEGylation, including greater compatibility; new and novel intellectual property; lack of accumulation in tissues; and no known toxic effects.

Heparinex, LLC is a biopharmaceutical company focusing on the novel recombinant synthesis of compounds for a number of markets, including drug delivery, dermal fillers, reconstructive surgery, biomaterials, cosmetics, medical devices, and ophthalmic medical applications. The core technology platform was originally discovered and patented by leading carbohydrate chemist/glycobiologist, Paul DeAngelis, PhD, Heparinex Chief Scientist and professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

Heparinex’s core platforms employ both bacterial production techniques and in vitro defined polymer syntheses to provide uniquely controlled non-animal sources of genetically customizable heparinoid compounds for drug discovery, therapeutic formulations, and medical device applications. The company’s technology is applicable to a broad spectrum of multibillion-dollar markets.