Biotech on quest to market gel ‘bandage’

BOULDER — Researcher Peter Mariner shines light from a flashlight into a plastic syringe of clear liquid.

Within seconds, the liquid turns to a Jello-like substance that can be used to fill and help heal a deep wound.

The water-soluble substance is made of polyethelene glycol, which also is used in cosmetics, drugs and food additives in the United States.

The gel has specific biophysical and biochemical properties that support a patient’s tissue structure. As a wound heals, the gel is taken over by healthy cells and dissolves into the body over a two-week period, said Mariner, senior researcher of startup company Mosaic Biosciences Inc. in Boulder.

The tissue-regeneration substance also can be used in bone regeneration and cartilage repair. It can be used on patients with bed sores, or as stem-cell therapy.

“This is extremely compatible with cells,” Mariner said. “The chemistry is so mild that cells don’t die.”

Now, Marty Stanton, co-founder of Mosaic Biosciences, is on a quest to commercialize the tissue regeneration substance in the next two years.

“In simple form, this material is a physical scaffold. It’s a very sophisticated bandage,” Stanton said.

Given the already proven generally safe nature of the substance’s ingredients, Stanton expects to be able to conduct the testing needed to receive U.S. Food and Drug Administration approvals in that time period.

The Boulder-based biotech startup licensed the substance for an undisclosed sum from the research lab of professor Kristi Anseth at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where it was researched and developed over a period of five years.

To Stanton, the company, which he co-founded with Anseth and CU-Boulder scientist Chris Bowman, didn’t really start rolling until 2011when he raised $1.3 million in venture capital funding.

To keep to his two-year timetable, Stanton is looking to hire two scientists — a biomaterials chemist with a doctorate in chemistry or biomaterials, and a senior scientist with a doctorate in developmental or cellular biology.

While two years may sound like a long time to someone outside the biotech world, it’s actually a very short period to gain any sort of FDA approval. Drugs that need approval from the FDA oftentimes go through a testing process that can take seven to 10 years or more before getting to market. Stanton plans to go through the FDA’s regulatory environment for devices rather than drugs, since the wound-healing product is similar to a Band-Aid, which would be the most simple form of such a medical device, he said. The device route usually takes a shorter approval process period than a drug route.

In the often uncertain world of FDA approvals, several investors and others are betting that Stanton will meet his self-imposed, two-year deadline.

“There are a lot of high-quality drivers evident in this company, from the science, the investigators and the investors, to the problem they’re trying to address,” said David Allen, associate vice president for technology transfer in the CU Technology Transfer office. “It’s a really exciting opportunity.”

Well-known bioscience venture capital firms HealthCare Ventures in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Morganthaler Ventures in Menlo Park, California, with an office in Boulder, High Country Ventures in Boulder and Ganot Capital LLC in Hollywood, Florida, all put in money.

Stanton is no stranger to the startup arena. He previously was chief operating officer and chief science officer at clinical diagnostic company SomaLogic Inc. in Boulder, a company that received $15 million in venture capital in the fourth quarter of 2011.

He currently is chief science officer of BiOptix Diagnostics Inc. in Boulder, a startup analytical instrumentation firm that announced $9 million in new funding in March 2011.

Stanton previously was president of Dexela Ltd. in London, an X-ray detector company that was bought by PerkinElmer Inc., a medical-device company based in Waltham, Massachusetts. He also previously was president of Archemix Corp. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a biotechnology company whose hemophilia research was licensed by Baxter International Inc. for $30 million and additional milestone payments.

“Stanton has the real entrepreneurial spirit. He’s the type of person I like to fund,” said Nassim Usman, a venture partner at Morganthaler Ventures in Menlo Park, California, a firm with a Boulder office. Usman also is a Mosaic board member.

The tissue regeneration business is expected to boom in the coming years, given that aging baby boomers are likely to need more help fixing various body parts, Usman said.

“They’re in the tissue regeneration business, (which) is very interesting to me,” Usman said. “We try to invest in up-and-coming technologies.

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