Diffusion Pharmaceuticals Wins 2012 VA Healthcare Innovators Award
Diffusion Pharmaceuticals LLC of Charlottesville today won the Virginia Healthcare Innovators award in the “Medical Product or Device ” category for development of lead drug candidate trans sodium crocetinate (TSC). TSC is being developed as a treatment for life threatening solid tumors by altering the diffusion of oxygen in hypotoxic tumor tissue without adversely affecting normal tissue. The drug recently entered an accelerated Phase 2 clinical trial in patients with GBM type brain cancer at University of Virginia Medical Center, the lead institution among 15 participating cancer centers nationwide.
David Kalergis, CEO, accepted the award for the company before hundreds gathered in Richmond for the 2012 Annual Virginia Healthcare Innovators conference. Kalergis credited the foundational discoveries of the mechanism of action by Professor Emeritus John Gainer at UVa, and the Charlottesville and Virginia scientific and business community for supporting and enabling the company’s development of this important novel treatment.
All five finalists in the 2012 Annual Virginia healthcare Innovators Award in the category “Medical Product or Device” are member companies of Virginia Bio.
CW Optics, Inc. based in Seaford, for “Wound Imager”, an optical imaging device that quickly provides blood flow velocity information on injured tissue, including wounds, burns and bruises, enabling wound care professionals to make better informed decisions about optimal treatment.
Diffusion Pharmaceuticals, LLC of Charlottesville, for the development of a new drug trans sodium crocetinate (TSC) for treatment of solid tumors, including brain tumors, by a novel mechanism of action, altering the diffusion of oxygen in hypotoxic tumor tissue without adversely affecting normal tissue.
PocketSonics, Inc. of Charlottesville, for “Sonic Window”, its pocket sized ultra-low cost, easy to use ultrasound device which provides a “window through the skin” of human vasculature for guiding needles, placing catheters, performing biopsies and detecting foreign bodies.
Synthonics, Inc. of Blacksburg is developing a long acting slowly absorbed oral formulation of levodopa using a novel metal coordinated pharmaceutical (MCP) technology, as an improved treatment for symptomatic control of Parkinson’s disease and improvement of quality of life for patients with Parkinson’s disease.
Tau Therapeutics, LLC Charlottesville, is developing the T-type channel inhibitor mibefradil for treatment of solid tumors, including brain tumor high grade glioma. The drug arrests tumor cells at their most vulnerable metabolic point in the cell cycle, uniquely amplifying the effects of conventional radiation and chemotherapy and overcoming drug resistance.
