New Biotech Firm sets up Headquarters in Rhode Island
Cell Based Delivery, Inc. (CBD), a biotechnology firm working to bring new drug delivery systems to market, has established corporate headquarters and research laboratories in downtown Providence, R.I. The move coincides with the company's first infusion of private capital.
CBD is working on a new class of implantable devices based on bioartificial muscle (BAM). The devices, which can be created from a patient's own tissue, deliver therapeutic proteins and various drug therapies to combat a wide range of debilitating diseases and conditions. Many of those therapies currently must be delivered by injection, are limited in their effectiveness, and have side effects, or are unavailable due to high cost or the absence of an effective delivery method. An early focus for CBD will be the development of devices to deliver growth hormone, which shows promise for treating muscle wasting, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular disorders. Current growth hormone therapy requires multiple injections, is very costly, and is only moderately successful.
Scientific founders Herman Vandenburgh, Ph.D. and Robert F. Valentini, M.D., Ph.D. will continue as primary researchers at the Providence facility and will serve as directors of the company. Vandenburgh, who developed the BAM devices, is a researcher based at the Miriam Hospital and a professor of pathology at Brown University School of Medicine. Valentini is Manning Assistant Professor of medical science and orthopedics at Brown.
The BAM devices under development at CBD are designed to be implanted in simple outpatient procedures, and will offer a more effective, less expensive way to treat muscle disease, heart disease, osteoporosis, and other conditions. The technology is currently in the early stages of development, with clinical trials slated to begin as early as 2000. CBD recently signed a licensing agreement with Lifespan, the Rhode Island-based health care system, allowing the firm to refine and market technologies developed in the laboratories of Lifespan partner hospitals.
"We are delighted to set CBD up in downtown Providence," says Valentini. "With significant biomedical research going on at Brown and in the Lifespan teaching hospitals, there's great potential for the city to develop into a biotech center like Cambridge's Kendall Square. Rhode Island's policymakers have already demonstrated their commitment to nurturing the state's biotech industry, and we absolutely need their continued and intensified support if we hope to compete."
CBD was one of four companies selected to receive a $75,000 Commercial Innovation Award from the Rhode Island Center for Cellular Medicine (RICCM) in May 1997. Established as a Research Center of Excellence by the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council in January 1997, RICCM is dedicated to growing and marketing Rhode Island's biotechnology industry. Earlier this fall, two other companies affiliated with the Center-MultiCell Associates, Inc., and CytoTherapeutics, Inc.-attracted nearly $6 million in funding from the federal National Institutes of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Advanced Technology program. Rhode Island received more NIST awards in that category than any other state, garnering 25 percent of all grants awarded.