UAF-developed drug composition licensed
February 3, 2020
In January, BeCool Pharmaceutics founder Kelly Drew licensed a UAF-developed drug composition that aims to control shivering. Drew is a UAF faculty member and researcher at the Institute of Arctic Biology. Drew was ready to license the technology after completing the National Institutes of Health’s I-Corps program, which provided insights into the industry and regulatory environments as well as the likely market fit for the composition. The drug is a result of many years of research in animal hibernation.
BeCool Pharmaceutics is an Alaska-based, small-molecule drug development company focused on creating therapeutics to modulate metabolism and body temperature by mimicking hibernation. It has the potential to improve outcomes for babies suffering from limited oxygen and blood to the brain, as well as possibly a medical condition known as hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. The therapeutic can help with the same problem for individuals who have suffered cardiac arrest or stroke, and it can reduce painful postoperative shivering.
You can read the full release on the Office of Intellectual Property and Commercialization website. Drew's work was also featured in the fall 2019 edition of Aurora magazine.
For more information, email Amanda Byrd at agbyrd@alaska.edu.