(NU/1433 - 7) Sundara Pharmaceuticals Limited - The Provision of Business Consultancy to Assist Commercialisation of University Research. (2)

A Professor in Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Roz Anderson joined the University in 1987 and in her 31 year career as a researcher worked on the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, diagnosis of bacterial infections, psoriasis and cancer, but her particular passion was the battle against the rare genetic disorder "Cystinosis". For the last 20 years of her life Roz undertook research to find a better, more efficiently targeted method of delivering cysteamine - which is a toxic and noxious drug used in the management of the rare life limiting genetic disorder Cystinosis.

The pre-clinical development of CF10 will provide a GMP-compliant synthetic route, GLP toxicology, toxicokinetic and safety data, and a clinical trial proposal. The results will support a 1st in human CF10 clinical trial. Early pre-clinical trials suggest that the bio-availability of cysteamine delivered by CF10 is twice that achieved by current treatment. This improvement, together with its more efficient mode of delivery, allows for a significant reduction in both the required dose and the frequency of dose, thereby leading to an anticipated reduction in side effects and better adherence to the medication regime.

The University established the spin-out company, ''Sundara Pharmaceuticals'', which has been formed with the brief "to enhance the research before undertaking pre-clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approval and either bringing CF10 to market itself or selling to a larger pharma business."

The formation of ''Sundara Pharmaceuticals'' facilitated a £1.56m Medical Research Grant award to undertake preclinical development that will take the drug to prodrug clinical trials, the award runs for a period of 24 months and the project commenced October2018. Sundara would now like to bring in a CEO to support the growth and development of the organisation.