DURHAM – Durham-based Liquidia Technologies’ is working on developing vaccines using tiny particles manufactured as carriers of substances meant to trigger or boost the body’s immune response. The goal is to “finely tune” that response, and increase vaccine efficiency and safety, the company’s chief executive said.

But the start-up company could also branch into other applications with its technology, Liquidia’s CEO Neal Fowler said Wednesday. Speaking as part of a panel at the Nanotech Commercialization Conference in Durham, Fowler said the company has established a deal with Procter & Gamble for the technology’s use in consumer products, and could look into other areas outside of life science as well.

The two-day conference, hosted by the NanoBusiness Commercialization Association and other groups, was focused on businesses in that use nanotechnology, which is technology conducted at a very small scale – the nano scale.

Charles Hamner, chair of The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences, a nonprofit research organization that’s based in the Research Triangle Park, said the business development using nanotechnology is still in the innovation stage of development, but he believes it’s about to enter the growth stage, which is the stage before maturity.

Hamner, who was also on the panel alongside Fowler, said he believes resources need to be allocated to help grow nanotechnology’s use. John Hardin, executive director of the N.C. Department of Commerce’s Office of Science & Technology, advocated for the government’s role in allocating public resources to help stimulate early stage business sectors like business using nanotechnology.

Hardin said has office has been pushing nanotechnology, but added that his office also been selected for review by state legislators that he believes will lead to reduced funding.

“(We’re) now at a prime time to support nanotechnology and its growth,” Hamner said.

As for Liquidia’s development, Fowler said the company is now focused on working on its “second generation” vaccine candidates – vaccines for malaria and pneumonia.

The first generation involved work on an influenza vaccine candidate. The company announced the launch of a Phase 1 clinical trial for a seasonal influenza vaccine in 2010, which was a trial that helped the company show the safety of its technology, Fowler said.

In February of last year, the company announced a collaboration with the international nonprofit PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative to explore using the company’s technology in the development of “next generation” malaria vaccines.

In March, Liquidia announced a $10 million equity investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for development and commercialization of vaccines and therapeutics with a focus on malaria and flu vaccines.

Then in December, Liquidia announced a collaborative agreement with PATH to do preclinical proof-of-concept studies for a next-generation pneumonia vaccine.

“We’re in preclinical animal models now, we hope to get to human in the not-too-distant future,” Fowler said.

The company’s board has also had discussions about other applications for the company’s technology, Fowler said, including spinning out one application, or licensing it for another, as a way to generate revenue.

“We’ve had a lot of discussions about the right time to do that,” he said. “A lot of other applications outside vaccines are at a very early stage,” he added.

The company now has a partnership “looking at a couple consumer products,” with Procter & Gamble, a company that manufactures personal care, cleaning, laundry detergents, prescription drugs and other products.

“Our challenge going forward is, our opportunity will be, how to pace those events to get the technology (going) faster and faster,” Fowler said. “(We) had to go through three or four years of understanding what we have on our hands, (we’re) now figuring out how to unleash it.”

The company could use its particle technology across an array of products, he said, speaking generally.

“The world is full of particles, (we could) produce things for diagnostics, consumer products, solar panels to green building materials,” he said. “We can use our technology for any of that.”

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Liquidia Technologies today announced the Company’s CEO, Neal Fowler, will participate in a panel discussion titled “How to Create 54 Liquidias” at the upcoming Nanotech Commercialization Conference (NCC) on April 4th, 2012. The concept of the panel is to explore how North Carolina can further create opportunities and provide resources that will lay the foundation for innovators to build successful companies like Liquidia in the region. The NCC is the preeminent nanotechnology conference in the region and is being held this year in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina April 4-5, 2012.

“Through this panel we want to explore the opportunities that exist for our next generation of innovators and how they too can find success in North Carolina”

Over the next decade, nanotechnology has the potential to influence every aspect of our lives, including our energy, food, medicines, water, buildings, and much, much more. According to a published report by BCC Research, the market value of the worldwide nanomedicine industry is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 12.5% to reach $130.9 billion by the fiscal year 2016. The acceptance and application of nanotechnology to everyday products is a foreshadowing of the growth expected across a multitude of fields including medicine, devices, and diagnostics.

“Liquidia’s success continues to be a shining example of what is possible for startup companies that make roots in North Carolina”, said Jim Roberts, Director of Business Development at COIN, “Through this panel we want to explore the opportunities that exist for our next generation of innovators and how they too can find success in North Carolina”.

Chris William, Managing Director of the Private Client Group at Wells Fargo and Executive Producer of the PBS television series, Carolina Business Review, will host the NCC panel that will also include the Chairman of The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences, Charles E. Hamner, D.V.M., Ph.D., and Executive Director of the Office of Science & Technology for the North Carolina Department of Commerce, John Hardin. Conference details can be found at http://www.nanoevent.org.

ABOUT LIQUIDIA

Liquidia Technologies, founded in 2004, is a privately held biotechnology company located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. By leveraging precise fabrication techniques of the semiconductor industry, Liquidia has become the only company in the world with the ability to rapidly design and manufacture precisely engineered particles of virtually any size, shape, or composition using a unique particle engineering and manufacturing platform know as PRINT®. This unique ability to precisely engineer particles enables scientists to explore new product frontiers that, until now, have otherwise been out of reach for the life sciences industry. In addition to the development of its own products, Liquidia licenses its PRINT particle technology and its GMP manufacturing capabilities to support proprietary programs advanced by collaborators. For more information, please go to www.liquidia.com.

DURHAM, N.C. - Starting Tuesday night with a speaker reception at the headquarters of the Center of Innovation for NanoBiotechnology (COIN), the fourth annual Nanotechnology Commercialization Conference will kick off with United States Congressman GK Butterfield in attendance.

The event, in Durham this year, features local, national and international nanotech commercialization leaders who will discuss topics such as how to grow this sector through university research, thoughtful regulatory guidance, corporate partnerships and increased investment.

The lunch keynote on Wednesday includes four heavy hitters from North Carolina and will be hosted and moderated by Chris William of the PBS show Carolina Business Review.

This fireside chat includes former CEO of the North Carolina Biotech Center, Charles Hamner, and now Chairman of the Hamner Institute. The discussion also includes John Hardin, the Executive Director of the Office of Science and Technology, who works with the NC Department of Commerce on science and technology policy. Finally, the CEO of a global leader of nanobiotechnology, and from our own backyard, Neal Fowler of Liquidia will discuss his experience and vision from the private sector.

The idea of the panel is how to create the infrastructure to create more companies like Liquidia that license technology from our leading research universities, develop the technology, attract investment capital, attract management and retain and attract the best and the brightest talent to the region.

The technology behind Liquidia started with Dr. Joe DeSimone and his team of researchers at his labs at UNC and NC State. The technology was spun out of the university labs, raised capital from local and regional VCs such as Wakefield Group, PPD, Pappas Ventures, and NEA and eventually the Gates Foundation. The company attracted experienced management such as Mr. Fowler.

Liquidia now has 54 employees and presumably some of the best talent in the world is working on this cutting edge technology called PRINT, where drug companies and vaccine companies are coating Liquidia’s nanoparticles with their drugs to attack fatal diseases.

So how are we addressing these important issues of a nurturing ecosystem to build nanotechnology companies and great jobs in the region? Several federal government leaders are coming to discuss policy. Several national investors in nanotech companies, including two leaders from Harris and Harris, a publicly traded venture capital, will present at the conference and there will be an investor pitch room - a tough love feedback session for early stage nanotech companies.

A former FDA executive will give a morning keynote speech after meeting with company executives at a VIP Breakfast. Another session addresses how to sell your nano product to larger companies and to bigger markets. Executives and VIPs from around the country have agreed to meet with our regional companies in hopes of making a match to bring some new out of region resources to our market at VIP Partnering sessions during the conference.

And to improve the appeal to the non-nano crowd, there will also be a first of a kind Nano Art Exhibition on Wednesday night, during the networking reception, where images taken from a microsocope have been enlarged and colored to show beautiful images never seen before. These images will light up Bay 7 at the American Tobacco Campus like no other event since the renovation of the old tobacco warehouse.