CROWN POINT Brogan Pharmaceuticals seeking FDA approval for drug that helps diagnose some tumors

BY PATRICK GUINANE
pguinane@nwitimes.com
317.637-9078
 

This story ran on nwitimes.com on Tuesday, May 9, 2006 9:24 AM CDT

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A Crown Point bioscience firm has won a $500,000 state grant to help bring to market a drug aimed at helping doctors better diagnosis a cancer that afflicts young children and a tumor that causes high blood pressure and strokes in adults.

Brogan Pharmaceuticals, which recently located in Millennium Park, was one of seven firms to receive funding from the state's 21st Century Research and Technology Fund, the Indiana Economic Development Corp. announced Monday. Created in 1999, the fund is used to assist university research and entrepreneurial firms.

"It's done that and done it really well for us," said Brett Dines, Brogan president and CEO.

The company will use the state dollars to finalize its regulatory submission to the Food and Drug Administration for Omaclear, an injectable radioactive pharmaceutical used to diagnose neuroblastoma, a leading cause of cancer in children, and pheochromocytoma, an adult tumor of the adrenal grand.

Dines said the drug already is available in Europe and has been used in U.S. clinical trials for more than 15 years. Omaclear, however, is what's known as an orphan drug, meaning it would benefit fewer than 200,000 Americans. Big drugmakers often don't take such drugs to market because, for them, the regulatory burden outweighs the potential financial gain.

"Being a smaller company, we believe we can, overall, reduce the cost to bring these drugs to market and reduce the cycle time to bring these products to market," Dines said.

Brogan Pharmaceuticals currently has eight employees, with plans to hire three more, Dines said.

The six other state grants announced Monday went to Purdue University and firms from Carmel, Indianapolis, Lafayette and two companies in West Lafayette.