UWA forms spin-out company to develop nanoparticle cancer drugs

The University of Western Australia (UWA) and Yuuwa Capital have set up a new spin-out company, Eridan Technology, to commercialise nanoparticle technology for drug delivery applications.

The technology, developed by Australian Research Council Fellow Dr Swaminatha Iyer and his colleagues in UWA’s School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, will enable the precise delivery of drugs to diseased cells for the treatment of cancer and other diseases through ‘loaded’ nanoparticles.

Dr Iyer said the technology was a nanoparticle formulation with features designed to allow encapsulation of multiple compounds or ‘payload’ and stable delivery of the payload to the target cells.

“This formulation has shown promising applications achieving high transfer efficiency and targeted drug delivery for neurotrauma, in tissue engineering, treatment of cancer and cardiovascular diseases,” he said.

The research team believes the technology will improve single-dose drug delivery targeting specific sites in the body.

Yuuwa Capital is a federal government-licensed Innovation Investment Fund to commercialise Australian-developed research through venture capital to companies at the seed, start-up and early expansion stage of their business development. The fund has a particular focus and previous expertise in university research commercialisation.

Yuuwa Capital Investment Director Dr James Williams said Yuuwa was attracted to the Eridan project due to the technology’s broad applications and potential for short-term revenues and significant benefits should the therapeutic delivery potential be realised.

“Importantly, Yuuwa has worked with this research team on a previous successful project and has confidence that the team can deliver once again,” Dr Williams said.

UWA’s Office of Industry and Innovation has licensed the technology into Eridan Technology and also negotiated the initial funding from Yuuwa Capital.