A Washington state agency is throwing $5 million at a Seattle drugmaker's proprietary screening technology with the understanding that, in return for the investment, the company will donate a portion of its proceeds toward a new nonprofit life science initiative.
The company is Omeros, and its technology, which enables researchers to identify compounds that interact with orphan G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), has caught the attention of Washington's Life Sciences Discovery Fund (LSDF).
Simply put, Omeros has a technology that will help enable drug researchers to figure out ways to bind their therapeutics to one of about 120 GPCRs that currently have no known ligands, or molecules that bind the receptors. Figure out how to tie therapeutic compounds to the GPCR family of proteins, and you have therapeutics to treat conditions like cancer, obesity and neurological disorders, according to the company.
From LSDF's perspective, it was not the technology alone that convinced it to make the investment. It was Omeros' promise to put a portion of the money back into promoting life sciences in the state of Washington.
"The allocation of a portion of the fruits of Omeros GPCR commercial successes toward a public purpose in Washington state was an important factor in making the grant," Lura Powell, chair of the LSDF Board of Trustees, says in a statement.
The $5 million the LSDF is investing in Omeros comes from its 1998 tobacco settlement fund.
- read the news release