A Chicago-based medical startup that wants to stop migraines using a nasal spray received more funding this week to continue its research.
Seurat Therapeutics, a biotech startup founded within the University of Chicago, received a $500,000 grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
The funding will help the startup continue testing its product, a nasal spray that aims to stop the cause of migraines. The funding comes after the company raised $750,000 in seed funding in March. The company is seeking more grant funding as well as other venture capital funding, said Seurat’s co-founder, president and CEO Yuan Zhang.
So far, the nasal spray has been tested on rats, but the funding would enable the company to test its product on other animals and assess optimal dosing ranges for humans, Zhang said, adding that it’ll take some time—perhaps more than a year or two—before they can progress to people.
The drug, Increlex (IGF-1), has been traditionally administered through injection to children with height deficiencies. This could potentially simplify Seurat's FDA approval process given that the drug and its side effects are well known already, she said.
“We’re actually in a unique position; the molecule that we’re using has been given in humans for decades now,” Zhang said. “What we’re doing is helping [to] repurpose it, taking this molecule that has already been on the market and we’re moving it to another medication for adults.”
The drug is supposed to lessen the cause of oxidative stress, which can lead to headaches if the neurons in the brain are going haywire. A study published in Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain in October 2017 concluded that migraines are possibly the brain’s defense against oxidative stress.
The patent behind the company’s treatment is based on the work of Dr. Richard Kraig, Seurat Therapeutic’s co-founder, chief scientific officer, and leader of the Migraine Headache clinic at the University of Chicago. The university owns the intellectual property rights to Dr. Kraig’s creation, Zhang said. Even so, the university has provided $250,000 in funding to the startup through the university’s Innovation Fund and has provided office space within the university’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Though the company’s CFO, CSO and chairman play an active role at the startup, Zhang is the company’s only full-time employee.
If the testing is successful and the product eventually goes to market, its product could help many people in the U.S. and abroad who suffer from migraines, Sanders said. About 39 million adults and children in the U.S. and about 1 billion people internationally suffer from migraines, according to the Migraine Research Foundation.
“Within the next year or so, I anticipate we’re going to be doing some clinical trial work with it, and that’ll be very exciting,” Dr. Martin Sanders, co-founder and chairman of Seurat Therapeutics said.
