A Lake Forest startup hopes to develop drugs to treat fallout from chemical warfare.
Cenomed Inc. has licensed from the Georgia Institute of Technology the rights to use drug compounds that could be used to treat exposure to chemical agents such as sarin, soman and tabun.
The company got a boost in July when President Bush signed the Bioshield Act. The law allots about $5.6 billion over 10 years for the government to stockpile vaccines and drugs to fight anthrax, smallpox and other bioterrorism agents, including ones from chemical weapons.
“Our lead candidate will be focused on biodefense, and we intend to follow that up with an entire portfolio that’s focused on biodefense,” said David Helton, Cenomed’s president and cofounder.
Helton said that the Food and Drug Administration is working to shorten the timeline for new drug applications for biodefense.
“So, from a development standpoint and from a funding standpoint, it became a very nice-looking target,” Helton said.
Cenomed’s main goal isn’t to bring drugs to market. Rather, it hopes to develop drugs that it would license to large pharmaceutical companies that would market them.
