Liverpool John Moores University commercialises lung biosimulator with fresh spin-out Pulmorphix.
Pulmorphix, a company commercialising a lung biosimulator, has been spun-out of Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU).
The biosimulator offers a new tool in drug development by offering a reliable method of testing how drugs will act when they are inhaled. The artificial lung was developed over six years at LJMU, and could potentially fill a void for an industry-wide technology for testing orally inhaled products.
The lung biosimulator mimics conditions within the lung, such as temperature, humidity, breathing, light and lung fluid composition, with a view to develop therapies for both conditions already treated orally, such as asthma, and treated via other methods, such as diabetes.
Kish Mistry, Pulmorphix CEO, said: “An increasing number of therapy areas are using the pulmonary route to administer drug therapy, such as anxiety, Parkinson’s disease, pain management, migraine, cystic fibrosis, anticoagulation, osteoporosis, anaemia and diabetes. The problem is little is currently known about the interaction of inhaled drug particles with the lung or pulmonary fluids, a process known as dissolution. Pulmorphix technology can bridge this knowledge gap within the pharmaceutical industry and that is why this new technology is such a game changer.”
