Using a patented nanotechnology, the company says its HPLC chiral columns enable previously unattainable molecular separations by offering unprecedented selectivity and scalability
Evolved Nanomaterial Sciences (ENS), a Cambridge USA-based company that uses nanotechnology to revolutionise the chiral separations essential to the drug development process, completed in March 2006 a $3.3 million Series A round of financing led by Harris and Harris, a publicly traded venture capital firm that makes initial investments exclusively in tiny technology, including nanotechnology, microsystems and microelectromechanical systems (Mems).
"The future of drug discovery and manufacture rests squarely with chiral therapeutics which represent more than 80 percent of all new drugs in the pipeline," said ENS CEO Robert Pucciariello.
"Yet current methods for chiral separation are slow, unreliable and often unscalable for manufacture.
"Harris and Harris's knowledge of the nanotechnology space enabled them to recognize how ENS's technology will speed up and simplify the drug development process".
Using a patented nanotechnology, the company says its HPLC chiral columns enable previously unattainable molecular separations by offering unprecedented selectivity and scalability, and dramatically simplifying the research and analysis process.
ENS's forthcoming product line is effectively separates a broad spectrum of chiral chemical compounds, including both large and small molecules.
It promises to remove much of the current trial and error in chiral chromatography column and condition selection.
Chiral separation is a process by which scientists, particularly in drug development and clinical trials, separate mirror-image molecules: one of which is often therapeutic or beneficial; the other of which can produce unwanted side effects.
ENS will use the funding to fill out its manufacturing and product development capabilities, and support the upcoming launch of its first line of commercially available chiral columns in second quarter 2006.
The company's technology has also demonstrated superior performance on low molecular weight compounds.
The enabling capabilities of its columns, shorter method development times needed, and higher capacity and throughput in batch chromatography all address critical points in the drug development pipeline, helping to speed new drugs into clinical trials.
Most top-selling drugs are chiral, including Lipitor, Nexium and Viagra, and more than 50 percent of current drug sales are from chiral drugs.
