SEATTLE, May 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — LumiThera Inc., a developmental stage medical device company creating a non-invasive photobiomodulation (PBM) treatment for ocular disorders and disease, announced today that they were awarded a Washington State Life Sciences Discovery Fund (LSDF) commercialization grant. LumiThera was 1 of 3 recipients of the LSDF matching grants worth $500,000 to provide for commercialization activities for a treatment for subjects with dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
LSDF executive director John DesRosier stated: “Our track record shows that LSDF grants help commercialize major medical breakthroughs and attract private funding from external investors.” According to the LSDF press release, “These new awards help move promising treatments and diagnostics more quickly from the lab bench to patients in need.”
“We are very honored for the continuing support of the LSDF award program. The seed grant allowed us to build a prototype instrument and now this matching investor commercialization grant will allow us to complete the commercial product development,” stated Clark Tedford, Ph.D., President and CEO. “There are no approved treatments for dry AMD except vitamin supplements. The grant with investor matching funds will further support initiation of a pivotal clinical trial in subjects that have dry AMD. Since the LSDF announcement, we have secured the investor match and will prepare for a clinical trial later this year.”
Retired Congressman Norm Dicks, recently appointed to the Advisory team at LumiThera, shared this insight, “The use of the LSDF funds demonstrates the direct impact on creating new jobs and establishing viable business in Washington.”
The grant also provides for collaboration between LumiThera and Seattle-based Product Creation Studio (PCS), a design house that has been working with the company to create the novel instrument. “The prototype build went very well and LumiThera is now poised to bring this to market,” stated Scott Thielman, Vice President, PCS.
LumiThera has generated some exciting pilot human data with their PBM approach,” says Dr. Rob Devenyi, Ophthalmologist-in-Chief and Director of Retinal Services, University of Toronto. “The use of PBM could give a large number of patients a non-invasive treatment wherein there are no alternatives. If it can slow the progression of vision loss that would be a tremendous advance in the field.”
Visit the Company’s website at www.lumithera.com.
About LumiThera Inc.
LumiThera is a developmental-stage medical device company focused on treating people affected by dry age-related macular degeneration. The Company was founded by a team of physicians, scientists, and engineers, with backgrounds in the use of photobiomodulation (“PBM”), using non-invasive light emitting diodes (“LED”) and laser treatments for acute and chronic ocular diseases and disorders. The Company is developing an ophthalmologist LED office-based instrument to be used in multiple ocular conditions or disorders as non-invasive medical treatments.
2015 LumiThera Inc., All rights reserved.
SOURCE LumiThera Inc.
