Oriel Therapeutics

Oriel Therapeutics Inc., an inhaled drug-delivery company formed by Anthony Hickey, PhD, and alumnus Timothy Crowder (’00 PhD BMME), received a $26.5 million commitment from a group of venture capital firms in November 2007.

The commitment comes from a group led by New Leaf Partners, a New York venture capital firm. The money will fund the company’s development of drugs that use its patented dry-powder inhaler technology, which was developed at the UNC School of Pharmacy.

In October 2006, Oriel was granted a second U.S. patent on powder metering, an extension of Oriel’s powder fluidization technology.

The patent covers an apparatus for high precision metering of poorly flowing powders into pre-measured doses such as required by inhaler products. The technology is an extension of Oriel’s existing intellectual property on powder fluidization control for active dry powder inhaler systems.  The powder metering technology can reduce the time required to formulate powder drug products for transfer from R&D to manufacturing.  Applications in other industries are also being explored.

Oriel currently has fourteen US and associated international patent applications pending for various aspects of the use of its powder fluidization and aerosolization technology.

Based in Research Triangle Park, Oriel is committed to developing dry powder inhaler products with their own energy source for efficient drug delivery to the lungs to better treat a range of respiratory diseases, including asthma and COPD.

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