New spin-out company to develop nanoparticle drugs

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

The technology, developed by Australian Research Council Fellow Dr Swaminatha Iyer and 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.

Iyer said the technology was a nanoparticle formulation designed to encapsulate multiple compounds or ‘payload’ and enable 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 LP 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. Yuuwa Capital LP has a particular focus and previous expertise in university research commercialisation.

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