Start-Up
Start-Up
Monday, January 30, 2006; Page D05
Name: NextBreath LLC
Location: Baltimore. The company is housed at Techcenter@UMBC of the University of Maryland Baltimore County.
Funding: The company is primarily self-funded and supported by revenue from service contracts. Maryland Industrial Partnerships has provided two grants totaling $216,178 to University of Maryland scientists working with the company.
Big idea: NextBreath is developing a new inhaler device that would improve drug delivery into the lungs. To support product development, co-founders Julie D. Suman and Shailaja Somaraju also contract out testing services for nasal sprays and other pulmonary products. "If you can snort it or inhale it, we test it," Suman joked. The company documents the performance and quality of pulmonary products and provides data to support submissions to the Food and Drug Administration. While the service contracts pay the bills, Suman and Somaraju focus on developing their own product.
How it works: "Think of the lungs as a stack of eight blocks," Suman said. "Most inhalers will deposit the drug at the top of the blocks. We're envisioning a system that will push that drug further down the stack of blocks and by doing so distribute the drug more throughout the lungs."
Only about 20 or 25 percent of a drug taken by inhaler typically reaches the lungs, "and the rest is wasted in the upper respiratory tract," Somaraju said. "Our hope is that by developing this product, we can increase the deposition of drugs into the lungs so more becomes available for absorption."
Where the idea was hatched: Suman and Somaraju worked for the same professor while completing their doctoral degrees at the University of Maryland, and both had training in the pulmonary field. "I felt that we could leverage our expertise in this field to maybe start our own company and see how we could tap into the need out there for other companies who don't want to test inhalers or nasal sprays and want to contract out," Somaraju said. "Our goal was always to come up with a device we could call our own and take to market." The company plans to begin animal testing this year and, depending on those results and the procurement of additional funding, hopes to begin human trials next year.
Example of use: The device could be used for medications that treat asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), for chemotherapy, for growth hormone or pain management drugs, or for drugs that are being developed that would be delivered through the lungs for systemic use, such as insulin.
Customers: The executives said the company works with 27 international pharmaceutical companies but that they could not disclose names because of contract restrictions.
Founded: 2001
Who's in charge: Suman, president; Somaraju, vice president; and Timm Johnson, director of business development.
Employees: 10
Web site: http:/
Partners: InnovaSystems Inc., Image Therm Engineering, Malvern Instruments, Copley Scientific, Jeiven Pharmaceutical Consulting Inc., Chemic Laboratories Inc., Lancaster Laboratories and the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.
What the name means: "It goes back to our scientific adviser," said Somaraju, who said the professor came up with the name during a brainstorming session.
Where will you be in five years?: "We see the company at about 30 to 35 people with the service arm strong and thriving, which will allow us to switch more of our focus to the product development side," Suman said.
-- Andrea Caumont
