Start-up company’s lead programs target resistant SSTIs and erectile dysfunction.
Start-up firm Makefield Therapeutics negotiated an exclusive license to IP covering its biodegradeable Hybrid Nanoparticle™ technology from the inventors at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.
Makefield was founded earlier this year to develop new therapeutics based on the use of biodegradeable nanoparticles for the targeted, controlled delivery of nitric oxide gas. The approach to storing and delivering nitric oxide in a therapeutically relevant manner was invented by an Einstein College team led by Joel Friedman, M.D., Ph.D.
“Nitric oxide has been the focus of immense medical and scientific exploration,” notes Robert Towarnicki, Makefield’s president and CEO. “Until now, however, the difficulty of conveniently and effectively delivering the gas to targeted tissues has limited the therapeutic application of nitric oxide.”
The nanoparticles are made of hydrogel/glassy matrix composites that enable the preparation of stabile formulations capable of packaging a gas for local delivery to target tissues for therapeutic applications, Makefield claims. The firm suggests the addition of a glassy substance to traditional sol-gel nanoparticles is responsible for the particles having unique characteristics that haven’t previously been achieved.
Composed of commonly utilized pharmaceutical excipients found on the GRAS (generally recognized as safe) list and/or the USP-NF Formulary, the Hybrid Nanoparticle platform technology is also capable of delivering peptides, nucleic acids, and traditional small molecule pharmaceuticals.
Makefield’s lead programs are both topical formulations of nitric oxide-containing nanoparticles: an antimicrobial for the treatment of drug-resistant skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) and a treatment for erectile dysfunction in men who are either unresponsive to or unhappy with currently available oral therapies.
