Buies Creek, N.C.-A grant in the amount of $197,981 from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center to Campbell University’s College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences will be used to establish a Center for the Analysis of Pharmaceutical Biomaterials. The grant makes possible the purchase of state-of-the-art analysis instruments that will allow researchers to perform complete physical and chemical characterization of active pharmaceutical ingredients, inactive ingredients and dosage forms to evaluate products, both investigative and commercial, for safety and effectiveness for animal and human use.
The grant was awarded through the Institutional Development Grant program of the N.C. Biotech Center whose purpose is to provide research equipment or core facilities that serve multiple research programs. The Center for the Analysis of Pharmaceutical Biomaterials will be an arm of the Campbell University Pharmaceutical Science Institute (CUPSI) whose mission is to enhance the development of innovative academic and research programs. CUPSI brings together the technology and scientific expertise for the research and development of pharmaceutical products and accommodates small-scale production of solid and liquid dosage forms and the processing of sterile products. Through CUPSI, graduate students in the Pharmaceutical Sciences program are able to engage in innovative and challenging research. In addition to product research, CUPSI provides consulting services and clinical supplies manufacturing to the pharmaceutical community. It primarily works with small start-up companies and academic institutions that have a drug, but do not have the infrastructure or know-how to develop it into a drug delivery system to be used in clinical investigation. CUPSI has manufactured clinical supplies for university medical programs and NIH sponsored clinical studies.
Three projects are scheduled for the immediate use of the new instruments funded by the grant. One involves the nanoparticle dispersion of a unique anti-pancreatic cancer agent, another, the evaluation of the formulation of a novel delivery system for the anticancer agent tamoxifen; and a third, the development of an oral delivery system for the antidiabetic hormone insulin.
The North Carolina Biotechnology Center is a private, non-profit corporation supported by the N.C. General Assembly. Its mission is to provide long-term economic and societal benefits to North Carolina by supporting biotechnology research, business, education and strategic policy statewide.