Acusphere

About:

Acusphere is a speciality pharmaceutical company developing cardiovascular drugs for the detection of coronary artery disease.

Website: http://www.acusphere.com

Top Investors: Polaris Partners, Audax Group, Thomas Weisel Partners, HBM Healthcare Investments, Technology Funding

Description:

Acusphere is a specialty pharmaceutical company, primarily focused on the development of Imagify™ (perflubutane polymer microspheres) injectible suspension, a cardiovascular drug for the detection of coronary artery disease. Acusphere is in the process of seeking regulatory approval of Imagify in Europe, and negotiating a Special Protocol Assessment with FDA for an additional trial required for U.S. approval. Imagify was created using Acusphere’s proprietary porous microparticle technology, which was also used to create three other drugs which have begun clinical development – AI-525 for acute pain, AI-850 for oncology and AI-128 for asthma. AI-525 and AI-850 were sold to Cephalon in transactions totaling $31 million. AI-128 was developed in collaboration with Elan, who contributed $7.5 million to the program. Acusphere’s technology has the potential to create a wide variety of new drugs by reformulating hydrophobic drugs and creating sustained release formulations of existing drugs.