A University Hospitals Case Medical Center spinoff company is hoping to raise seed funding to develop the third-generation prototype of a device that uses near-infrared light to treat psoriasis.
Akron, Ohio-based Fluence Therapeutics is developing a drug-device combination that would employ a process known as photodynamic therapy to treat moderate to severe psoriasis, an inflammatory skin disease. Photodynamic therapy uses chemical compounds that are sensitive to light to alter cell function.
The challenge for Fluence has been developing a device that can deliver the right amount of light, while attaching to a patient’s body and maintaining a uniform distance from the skin, according to CEO Warren Goldenberg, an Akron attorney and entrepreneur.
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Now, thanks to a design developed by renowned firm Nottingham Spirk that uses tiles with light-emitting diodes attached to a flexible substrate that conforms to the body, Goldenberg thinks Fluence has overcome that challenge. The company is hoping to raise seed funding of between $300,000 and $1.3 million prepare for a larger venture capital raise later. Fluence also would use the funding to build a prototype of the new design, which is the version it plans to take to the market.
Fluence hopes to have the product on the European market in about 5 years, and is targeting Finland as an entry point. Fluence is working with a Finnish technology development company to set up European operations and locate clinical and funding partners, Goldenberg said. A Finnish location makes sense because Scandinavia has among the highest rates of psoriasis in the world, Goldenberg said.
Fluence’s goal is to obtain the CE Mark for the device in about 2 years, and European regulatory approval for the drug in 5 years. Goldenberg estimates it’ll require between $25 million and $30 million to get the drug-device combination to market.
Here’s how Fluence’s psoriasis treatment works: First, the company’s pharmaceutical, which is inert until it is activated by light, is applied to the affected area of a patient’s skin. Next, the photodynamic therapy device is placed around the affected area, and delivers near-infrared light, which activates the pharmaceutical. As the drug is activated by the light, it produces singlet oxygen, which kills the affected cells by accelerating apoptosis, the natural process of programmed cell death.
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Currently, moderate to severe psoriasis is treated with drugs, such as Enbrel, and light therapy. The problem with those approaches, though, is that the drugs are costly and often come with side effects, while the light therapy approaches typically involve ultraviolet light, which can cause cancer and premature aging, according to Goldenberg.
One big advantage for Fluence is that the history of its drug goes back more than two decades, and about $32 million has been spent to develop it — though Goldenberg stressed that Fluence didn’t spend that money.
The funding came in the form of National Institutes of Health development grants to University Hospitals researchers who were originally investigating the drug as a cancer treatment. While that approach was scrapped, Fluence benefits from the years of testing that have shown the drug to be safely tolerated in animals and humans.
“What we are essentially doing is taking a compound developed and tested for cancer and repurposing it to use it for psoriasis,” Goldenberg said.
