Liquidia lands drug partnership

Liquidia Technologies, the Durham-based company co-founded by scientist Joseph DeSimone, announced this morning a partnership with a large drug maker to develop new cancer treatments.

Terms of the deal with Abbott were not disclosed.

Liquidia uses so-called nanotechnology to find new ways to deliver medicine, and for other purposes. The Abbott partnership will involve using tiny RNA molecules to influence human genes.

Liquidia was founded in 2004 based on the work of DeSimone, 44, a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State. Last year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology named DeSimone the winner of its Lemelson Prize, known as the “Oscar for inventors.”

Abbott, based in Illinois, sells drugs such as the arthritis medicine Humira, as well as medical devices and other products.