Using technologies common to the semiconductor industry, a team of
investigators at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and
Liquidia Technologies has created a polymer nanoparticle that can
encapsulate large loads of therapeutic molecules that may have use in
treating prostate cancer. The research, led by Joseph DeSimone,
co-principal investigator of the Carolina Center for Cancer
Nanotechnology, was published in the journal Nano Letters.

Nanotechnology firm Liquidia partners with PATH on new pneumonia vaccine

North Carolina nanotechnology company Liquidia Technologies is partnering with nonprofit organization PATH to develop a new pneumonia vaccine that could be deployed globally.

Research Triangle Park-based Liquidia is working with PATH to conduct preclinical studies on a “next generation” pneumococcal vaccine that could be more effective than existing vaccines and more efficient to produce. Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed. But it’s not the first time the two entities have worked together. Liquidia has also partnered with PATH’s Malaria Vaccine Initiative to develop a new malaria vaccine.

Pneumonia vaccines in the United States have all but eliminated childhood pneumococcal disease. But vaccines are too expensive in the developing world. Even when they are available, they do not cover all variations of the bacterium.

Liquidia’s proprietary “PRINT” technology can control the size and shape of a nanoparticle, which optimizes the delivery of a therapeutic to the cells of the human body. Liquidia says it can use its technology to bring together multiple vaccine components in a nanoparticle, which can optimize a vaccine’s safety and efficacy. Because the Liquidia technology is scalable, it makes vaccine production more cost efficient.

Pneumonia represents a large global market. The World Health Organization estimates pneumonia kills 1.4 million children younger than age 5 each year. More than half of these deaths are caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, a bacterium with many variations that are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics.

“By improving vaccine performance and reducing manufacturing costs using our PRINT technology, we believe this collaboration has the potential to significantly impact the spread of pneumonia in the developing world,” Liquidia CEO Neal Fowler said in a statement.

Privately-held Liquidia has raised more than $60 million in equity financing. Its investors includes venture capital firms Canaan Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Morningside Venture Investments Limited, Pappas Ventures and Firelake Capital as well as Wilmington, North Carolina-based clinical research organization PPD. Liquidia earlier this year received a $10 million equity investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support vaccine development and commercialization.

Major foundations are increasingly relying on program-related investing to achieve their goals, putting money into for-profit firms whose work meshes with the donors’ causes, according to The New York Times.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has increased its pool for such investments, known as PRI’s, from $400-million to $1-billion since 2009, and earlier this year it bought a $10-million stake in Liquidia Technologies, a commercial firm working on vaccine delivery. The Omidyar Network, the David & Lucile Packard Foundation, and other funding entities have also stepped up PRI’s.

Money invested in PRI’s can go toward the federal requirement that foundations pay out 5 percent of their assets every year.

Grant makers “are increasingly agnostic about how they achieve their goals,” Independent Sector CEO Diana Aviv said. “If their purpose is, say, to eliminate food deserts, they may see supporting a grocery store chain as the best way of doing that rather than funding a nonprofit program.”

But, she said, the trend could have dire consequences for charities addressing the same issues, which are already experiencing a “slow erosion of nonprofit funding streams that threatens to undermine organizations that have been built over decades to meet high standards of public trust.”

The Seattle-based nonprofit, the world’s largest philanthropy with $36.4 billion in assets, made its first direct equity investment in a for-profit biotech company last week when it pumped $10 million into Research Triangle Park, NC-based Liquidia Technologies. While the foundation has made grants to companies for years, and has linked its support to specific programs with clear global health goals, this is the first time the foundation has structured a deal to take equity ownership, and have board-level oversight of a startup’s work, much like a venture capital firm.

Liquidia Technologies today announced the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has made a $10 million program-related investment (PRI) in the company to support the development and commercialization of safer and more effective vaccines and therapeutics. This follows recent announcements of the first Liquidia clinical trial of its lead seasonal flu candidate (LIQ001) and a collaborative agreement with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI).

Liquidia Technologies has started early clinical testing of its first vaccine developed using nanotechnology.

Liquidia Technologies, a privately held biopharmaceutical company developing particle-based vaccines and therapeutics, announced today that it has added an additional investor, PPD, Inc., to its Series C financing. The final addition of PPD brings the total funding for this round to $25 million. The initial Series C closing was announced in January 2010.