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Dundee, Scotland, ITI Life Sciences, the publicly funded innovation group, today announces it is seeking to commission a new £5-10 million ($10-20 million) R&D programme in the area of Intra-Ocular Delivery (IOD).
With the increasing prevalence of eye diseases expected in future years, due to an increasing ageing population, this new programme will be focused on developing innovative methods of delivering modern biological drugs and diagnostics into the eye.
Recently, a number of compounds have reached the market to treat eye diseases but because it is difficult to get them across the eye's barriers, they must be injected directly into the eye. Not only is this procedure unpleasant, but it is also associated with its own side-effects, such as elevated intra-ocular pressure, which can lead to other conditions. The injections must also be repeated regularly.
In terms of diagnosing ocular and non-ocular conditions, current methods use optical instrumentation to scan the back of the eye. A quick and convenient diagnostic biological agent that could detect pathological changes earlier would be a real breakthrough. However, this is most likely to involve the use of targeting compounds based on antibodies and, therefore, the same delivery challenges exist as outlined above.
Eleanor Mitchell, Managing Director of ITI Life Sciences, said: “Our programme is responding to the changing environment where there is significant interest in the application of new biologics-based therapeutics to eye diseases, and increasing evidence that certain diseases, including diabetes, can be detected at an early stage in the eye. Unfortunately, the eye has natural barriers which make effective delivery of new therapeutics and diagnostics into the eye extremely challenging.”
She added, “ITI Life Sciences has conducted an in-depth analysis of the current innovation barriers and emerging market trends in this area and believes there is a significant opportunity to develop revolutionary new ophthalmic delivery technologies to address these market needs. ITI Life Sciences, therefore, is looking to work with leaders in these areas who can contribute their expertise to the creation of an innovative R&D programme to develop such a technology.”
As a first step, ITI Life Sciences plans to host a programme-scoping workshop involving a number of internationally recognised academic and commercial experts to explore areas of convergence and potential innovation in the IOD space. In order to be considered for the workshop and future onward involvement in the R&D programme, responses to a Call for Expressions of Interest are invited from companies, agencies, institutes, academia and individuals. No geographical restrictions apply and ITI Life Sciences welcomes responses to this call from non-UK organisations. ITI Life Sciences is committed to helping its partners achieve success and ensuring the successful onward commercialisation of programme outputs.
Further details of the Call for Expressions of Interest are available at www.itilifesciences.co.uk/IOD.
Responses must be received no later than the 2 June 2008.
For further information, please contact:
For ITI Life Sciences
Gordon Struthers
gordon.struthers@itilifesciences.com
Martyn Link
martyn.link@itilifesciences.com
Tel: +44 (0)1382 568060
For International Trade and Scientific Media enquiries
Mark Swallow / Chris Gardner
Citigate Dewe Rogerson
Tel: +44 (0)20 7638 9571
mark.swallow@citigatedr.co.uk
About ITI Life Sciences
ITI Life Sciences is a division of ITI Scotland Ltd, a publicly funded organisation focused on driving sustainable economic growth in Scotland through ownership of commercially targeted R&D programmes delivering world-class intellectual assets. ITI Scotland is focused on three market areas: energy, life sciences, and digital media and communications technology.
ITI Life Sciences (Dundee, Scotland) aims to leverage Scotland’s research excellence in life sciences to generate new technologies that address future global market opportunities.
This is achieved by identifying and commissioning early stage R&D programmes based on assessing future market needs and developing the required technology assets. The organisation also identifies appropriate commercial partners to exploit these assets globally.
To date, ITI Life Sciences has initiated R&D programmes in commercially attractive areas such as point of care diagnostics, stem cell technologies, predictive drug screening and text mining.
Further information can be found at www.itilifesciences.com
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