VIC Foundry is proud to announce that it has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) to support the commercialization of its innovative regenerative pulp therapy product, Vital-Dent. The innovative treatment addresses a significant unmet need in pediatric dentistry. Over half of all children severely hurt their teeth through physical injury or cavities, resulting in the performance of 4.7M endodontic procedures per year to treat pulpitis and necrotic pulp in the pediatric and young adult population. Maintenance of vital pulp in the tooth is critical for the ability to fight future infections, to prevent fracture, and to retain the tooth, particularly for immature permanent teeth without fully developed roots. Vital-Dent aims to elicit regeneration of the pulp tissue, thereby increasing tooth retention and promoting resistance to fracture and infection.
The Vital-Dent technology was developed by Dr. Juan Taboas, Associate Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, and his colleagues. Dr. Taboas highlighted the importance of this partnership: "It was a true pleasure collaborating with Dr. Mabry for this award. I am truly excited to support her and the VIC Foundry team in commercializing this valuable therapy for kids." Currently, VIC Foundry has an option to the technology, which is owned by University of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Xiaoli Su, Principal Investigator of the project, expressed his excitement about this critical milestone: "I am very excited to move Vital-Dent towards the clinic with the SBIR funding from NIDCR. This innovative technology has the potential to dramatically improve outcomes for children with injured teeth. Dr. Taboas's work, supported by the Michigan – Pittsburgh – Wyss Regenerative Medicine Resource Center Interdisciplinary Translational Project Program, has already demonstrated the effectiveness of this approach in vivo, giving us strong confidence in the successful translation of this technology to the clinic."
The SBIR funding will be used to scale up the manufacturing process of Vital-Dent to comply with current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) and to further validate the product's safety and effectiveness through biocompatibility testing.
Vital-Dent is currently under development and the features described above are outlining current development goals. This test has not been cleared or approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or any other national regulatory authority.
About VIC Foundry:
The VIC Foundry is one element of the VIC innovation ecosystem that includes VIC Technology Venture Development, VIC Investor Network, and various associated programs such as the VIC Fellows and VIN Partners. VIC Foundry develops technologies that have a potential substantial impact and commercial promise but have too many unknowns to be able to acquire private equity investment initially. Instead of private equity, VIC Foundry further develops promising technologies by accessing grant funding such as SBIR and STTR. After a technology advances enough to warrant private equity investment, a new company is formed, an initial executive team is placed by VIC, and the VIC Investor Network places a founding investment up to $500,000 into the newly formed company. To learn more, visit vicfoundry.com.