2Flo Ventures

Vivacelle Bio Receives $5.3 Million Award from the US Navy for a Clinical Trial of VBI-S for Treatment of Hypovolemia of Septic Shock Due to COVID or other Pathogens

FORT WAYNE, Ind., Nov. 24, 2020 /PRNewswire/ —  Vivacelle Bio, Inc. today announces the Department of Defense awarded $5.3 million (USD) dollars for the clinical trial of VBI-S, an intravenously injected fluid based upon Vivacelle Bio’s phospholipid nanoparticle technology for the treatment of septic shock due to various pathogens including COVID-19, other viruses and/or bacteria. Approximately 270,000 people in the US and 10 million people worldwide die of septic shock annually. Seventy percent of COVID deaths are due to septic shock. Vivacelle’s VBI-S is likely to be effective in elevating blood pressure to survivable levels and improving oxygenation at early and even late stages of septic shock when current therapy, consisting of fluids and vasopressor medications, have failed. A phase IIa trial will be performed followed by a phase IIb/III trial of VBI-S.

The award was issued on behalf of the Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC) under Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium (MTEC) a biomedical technology consortium that collaborates under a transaction agreement (OTA) with the US Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC). The award issued is entitled “Phospholipid Nanoparticles in The Treatment of Septic Shock.”

Harvard Medical-school graduate and trauma surgeon, Cuthbert Simpkins, M.D., Founder of Vivacelle Bio, Chief Innovation Office and inventor of the phospholipid nanoparticle technology stated, ” VBI-S is a game changer. Many years ago, I received the training that enabled me to make this discovery while I served as a Naval Officer at the Naval Medical Research Institute. I have been doing research on septic shock for nearly 40 years. Finally, we have what I and others have been seeking for all of this time, a way to save lives and to reduce suffering of patients and their loved ones. I am very grateful to the Navy for providing the opportunity to move this life saving technology forward.”     

Harven DeShield J.D., Ph.D. and CEO of Vivacelle Bio commented, “This milestone clearly establishes both the clinical importance of VBI-S and the commercial trajectory of Vivacelle Bio. We are well poised to leverage our nanotechnology to rapidly address unmet clinical needs and save lives.”  

About Vivacelle Bio, Inc.
Vivacelle Bio, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery of life-saving interventions in critical illnesses due to a broad range of causes such as injuries resulting from warfare, major motor vehicle collisions or septic shock. Vivacelle Bio has a pipeline of products based upon its transformational phospholipid nanotechnology.    

For more information on VBI-S or Vivacelle Bio, please contact Harven DeShield, J.D., Ph.D. at 716-830-8932 or via email, harven@vivacellebio.com.  Company website: vivacellebio.com

About Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium
MTEC is a biomedical technology consortium collaborating with multiple government agencies under a 10-year renewable Other Transactional Agreement with the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command.  To find out more about MTEC, visit www.mtec-sc.org.

View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vivacelle-bio-receives-5-3-million-award-from-the-us-navy-for-a-clinical-trial-of-vbi-s-for-treatment-of-hypovolemia-of-septic-shock-due-to-covid-or-other-pathogens-301178451.html

SOURCE Vivacelle Bio, Inc.

Share

Share on facebook
Share on linkedin
Share on twitter

Related post

About Starr Green

Administrative Assistant

Starr is a creative problem solver with over twenty years of administrative assisting experience.

Experience

Calm and patient, she enjoys varied work responsibilities in a team or independently. The breadth of knowledge she has gained provides the benefit of a strong background in office organization & time management.

About Elsie Oyoo

Venture Capital Analyst

Elsie Oyoo is a venture capital analyst with 2Flo Ventures. She is a certified corporation secretary in Kenya and advocate of the High Court of Kenya, with over six years’ experience. She has served as the deputy corporation secretary of a Kenyan state-owned entity in which role she has given legal and policy advice to the Board of Directors and Senior Management team.

Experience

Elsie started off her career at the Commercial and Employment Law Practice Group of DLA Piper Kenya (Iseme, Kamau and Maema Advocates) and was mentioned in the legal directory, IP Stars in 2017 for her work on trademarks. She also formed part of the legal team that advised one of the largest banks in East Africa on a rights issue.

Education

She undertook her LL.M. (Master of Laws in Corporate and Commercial Law) at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign where she won the CALI Excellence for the Future Award in Professional Responsibility. She also has a post graduate diploma in law from the Kenya School of Law and an LL.B. (Bachelor of Laws) from the University of Nairobi. In her free time, she mentors female law students from her first alma mater, the University of Nairobi.

About John Cunningham

General Partner, Chief Financial Officer

John is the founder of Plowshares Asset Management, a private company focused on strategic investments in real estate and healthcare since 1994.

Experience

John founded Plowshares Asset Management LLC, with the primary focus of the development of multi-family residential real estate in the midwestern/western US.  The firm has branched into healthcare via investments in private companies that seek to better the lives of others.

Prior to 1994 John was involved in various management/board positions with investment firms and partnerships ranging from sales/marketing to CFO/Treasurer/HR.

Philanthropy

Chairman on the Board – First Congregational Church Evanston 1994-96
Board of Directors – Evanston Community Foundation 2015-2018
Volunteer – Martha’s Vineyard Food Bank 2020 – present

Education

Vanderbilt University BS Economics 1979

About Sharon Ray

General Partner, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Sharon Ray is a global Chief Human Resource Officer and leader with over 20 years’ experience.

Experience

Sharon is the founder/CEO of S. Thompson & Associates, a consultancy that partners with Senior leadership teams to develop and optimize HR strategies and practices to help achieve their growth goals.

Sharon serves as Head of People and Operations at Cancer IQ, a genetic cancer risk assessment software firm. She has also served as the head of HR at Panopta, which was acquired in December 2020. Additionally, she served as Chief People Officer at Solstice.

Prior to that, Sharon served as Vice President of Human Resources for healthcare company Emmi Solutions, LLC. In that role, she built the human resources function, developing the HR infrastructure to provide strategic direction for the organization. During her 11.5 tenure, Sharon’s contributions resulted in Emmi Solutions’ acquisition by Wolters Kluwer for $170 million in 2016.

Education

Sharon earned a Degree in Communications from Morehead State University.

About Lyle Berkowitz

General Partner, Digital Healthcare

Dr. Berkowitz is an active healthcare advisor and investor with over 25 years experience as a primary care physician, an informatician, a healthcare innovator and a health tech entrepreneur.

Experience

Previous roles include serving as Director of Innovation at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago; founder and Chairman of healthfinch; Chief Medical Officer and EVP of Product at MDLIVE; and founder/advisor to multiple other digital health companies over the years.

He currently sits on the board of Oneview Healthcare and is Editor-in-Chief for Telehealth and Medicine. He has served on multiple national boards in the past, including the Innovation Learning Network (ILN), the Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems (AMDIS) and the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) Foundation.

He has been listed as one of HealthLeader’s “Twenty People Who Make Healthcare Better”; Healthspottr’s “Future Health Top 100”, and Modern Healthcare’s “Top 25 Clinical Informaticists”.

He is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. He has been elected to Fellowship in both the American College of Physicians (ACP) and the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS).

Education

Dr. Berkowitz received his Biomedical Engineering degree from the University of Pennsylvania, his Medical Degree from the University of Illinois and did his Internal Medicine residency program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, IL.

About Paul Burton

Managing Partner, Biotechnology

Through Burton Advisory, Inc. Paul Burton provides strategic and financial advice to healthcare companies drawing from over 20 years of experience in corporate finance and strategic advisory in fortune 500 companies.

Experience

Since December 2018, Paul has been the CEO of Akan Biosciences, a biotech start-up developing regenerative medicinal therapeutics. Through Burton Advisory, he also advises early stage biotech as well as some digital healthcare companies such as Temprian Therapeutics, Schedule1, Cancer IQ, Care Advisors and 4D Healthware.

Additionally, Paul is currently an Entrepreneur In Residence at Northwestern University supporting students and faculty with healthcare oriented commercialization projects.

Previously, he was the CEO of ResQ Pharma, Inc. from July 2015 through December 2018. Similarly, he co-founded Vivacelle Bio, Inc. and was employed as its CFO and a member of its Board of Directors (BOD) from 2012 through 2015.

Paul is a Member of MATTER, a Chicago based healthcare incubator and the Bunker Labs, an Incubator started in Chicago for U.S. military veterans.

Paul started his professional career after law and business school as an investment banking associate at Salomon Brothers (now Citigroup Corporate & Investment Bank) in New York. Prior to grad school he served as a United States Regular Army Commissioned Officer (Infantry). While an undergraduate student Paul worked as a lab assistant at UIC’s Medical School Pharmacology Department, earning three co-authorships for research published in peer-reviewed journals.

Education

Paul earned his JD and MBA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He earned two Bachelor’s Degrees from the University of Illinois at Chicago.