MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Optivia Biotechnology Inc., a leading provider of in vitro transporter assay services, today announced that the company and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), have received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop an innovative system for characterizing the role transporter proteins play in the disposition of drugs by the liver. The $430 thousand Phase I grant will leverage the expertise of Leslie Z. Benet, PhD, , an internationally recognized drug development expert and Professor and Chairman Emeritus, Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, UCSF, along with Optivia’s novel transporter technology platform to study the effects of transporters on drug disposition and the interplay of transporters and metabolizing enzymes in the liver. The goal is to develop a transporter-based assay system capable of predicting the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME) of drug candidates – a key step to optimizing a drug’s safety and efficacy.
