Beta Bionics has been launched as a public benefit corporation to commercialise automated bihormonal pumps for type 1 diabetes sufferers.
Boston University today revealed it has spun out Beta Bionics, a US-based public benefit corporation that will commercialise an automated dosage mechanism for sufferers of type 1 diabetes.
Beta Bionics is developing a bihormonal pump dubbed iLet which automatically judges how much insulin and glucagon should be administered to those with the autoimmune disease.
The pump will undergo initial home-use trials on children and adults later in 2016, to be partially funded by a $1.5m grant from the US government-owned research agency National Institutes of Health.
The product will then be assessed by clinical trials sanctioned by US regulator Food and Drug Administration during the first half of 2017.
The spinout is based on research by Ed Damiano, professor of biomedical engineering at the university’s College of Engineering, whose son has type 1 diabetes. It licensed the patents from Boston University’s Technology Development office, in exchange for a 5% equity stake.
Beta Bionics previously received a $5m investment from pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly in late 2015, after the spinout was incorporated in October 2015.
Mike Pratt, interim managing director of Boston University’s Technology Development team, said: “Traditional corporations may make decisions based on a short-term horizon. Venture capitalists want to see returns on their investments fast.
“Ed recognises that he has to generate some profit in order to be sustainable, but the public corporation structure gives Beta Bionics some flexibility that other companies do not have – to put the people who need the device first.”
