NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Absorption Systems of Exton, Pa. has won a grant from the US Food and Drug Administration to continue developing its line of cell-based tests to measure drug interactions in humans, the company said today.
The $417,000 Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant will fund the development of the CellPort Technologies suite of in vitro test systems. These tests are designed to monitor interactions of drugs with a class of proteins called drug transporters, which mediate drug disposition throughout the body.
Drugs that interfere with the ability of a transporter to eliminate other co-administered drugs can lead to elevated levels of the second drug, causing toxicity.
"Unlike results from other commonly used test systems, our results are not confounded by the presence of non-human transporters," Absorption Systems Senior VP of Scientific Operations Al Owen said in a statement. "Positive interactions with the CellPort system will translate directly to the clinic, as these systems are non-ambiguous models for human drug-transporter interactions."
The firm said that it will use the funding specifically to dedicate staff for the next two years to optimize, scale-up, and commercialize the CellPort system.