Liquidia teams with Abbott

Durham company has role in developing cancer treatment

A partnership that Liquidia Technologies announced Wednesday gives the Durham company a toehold in a new area of drug research and development.

Liquidia, co-founded in 2004 by Triangle scientist Joseph DeSimone, will work with Abbott on a new type of cancer treatment known as short interfering RNA, or siRNA.

Financial details of the collaboration were not disclosed.

This is not a major, billion-dollar deal for Abbott, said Neil Fowler, Liquidia's chief executive. But for Liquidia, it is a significant step to prove its technology works.

Large drugmakers such as Abbott have taken an intense interest in siRNA and are testing its use to silence genes associated with diseases such as cancer, diabetes, HIV and macular degeneration.

Much of the research has yet to advance beyond animal testing. Many challenges remain, including how to get the strand of siRNA into a cell.

That's where Liquidia comes in.

Liquidia has developed a teflon-like material that is liquid at room temperature and hardens when exposed to light. The material can be turned into molds that make parts small enough to enter a cell.

The Abbott deal allows Liquidia to work on ways to deliver siRNA to tumor cells and disable them.

Liquidia's delivery method is one of several that drugmakers are considering, Fowler said. "But ours is a unique method."

Abbott considered many potential delivery methods and found Liquidia's to be one of the more promising ones, according to Stephen Fesik, who is the drugmaker's divisional vice president for cancer research.

"By combining Abbott's research and development capabilities with Liquidia's particle design and delivery expertise, we hope to greatly advance this promising therapeutic class and provide more targeted, effective treatment options for patients," Fesik said in an e-mail statement.

The material Liquidia developed is 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," the award pays $500,000 cash.

Liquidia, which employs 42 people in Durham, is also pursuing other uses for the material. Depending on how research and development progresses, the company's work force could exceed 50 by the end of the year, Fowler said.

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