David Sullivan, MD, professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, was awarded a phase I/II MII grant entitled “Repurposing of Cethromycin (QB101) for Malaria Prophylaxis”. The Maryland Innovation Initiative (MII) was created as a partnership between the State of Maryland and five Maryland academic research institutions. The program is designed to promote commercialization of research conducted in the partnership universities and leverage each institution’s strengths. The Innovation Commercialization Program was created to foster the transition of promising technologies having significant commercial potential from Qualifying Universities, where they were discovered, to the commercial sector, where they can be developed into products and services that meet identified market needs.
For this MII project, Dr. Sullivan will synthesize adequate amounts of cethromycin/QB101, validate it as a liver stage antimalarial drug and verify its activity as a possible prevention of malaria relapse. Dr. Nikola Kaludov of Quantum-Biosciences will be the project manager. These results will give Dr. Sullivan and Quantum-Biosciences, a start-up Maryland company formed with the mission of development and commercialization of QB101 for malaria prophylaxis, a strong position in a pre-IND meeting with the FDA at the end of the study period for a phase I/II clinical trial. “Funding of this MII proposal will significantly raise the value of the university-based technology and make it very attractive to pharmaceutical commercialization partners and investors” said Nikola Kaludov, PhD, founder of Quantum-Biosciences. “Existing detailed information on cethromycin pharmacology, formulation and potential toxicity can be leveraged for a faster review by the Food and Drug Administration. This will translate to shorter timelines to IND and subsequent NDA approval”.
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