The National Institutes of Health awarded Biodel Inc. a $600,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant to develop formulations for use in an artificial pancreas, also known as a closed loop pump system.
Danbury-based Biodel was founded to develop insulin treatments for diabetes. The company stated that the full benefits of intensive insulin therapy for diabetic patients have yet to be realized, because of difficulties in optimizing continuously variable insulin dose requirements using current technology; and because of the inability to eliminate hypoglycemia.
The use of glucagon to blunt the glucose-lowering effects of excess insulin may make feasible fully automated artificial pancreas systems, thereby minimizing the occurrence of hypoglycemia.
“Biodel has a great deal of expertise in developing stable glucagon formulations for the treatment of severe hypoglycemia,” said Dr. Errol De Souza, CEO of Biodel, in a prepared statement. “We will leverage this expertise and concentrate the resources funded by the SBIR on utilizing our proprietary technology to produce glucagon formulations that support the development of effective artificial pancreas therapy.”
