Milwaukee, WI (April 27, 2022). The University of Wisconsin (UWM) Research Foundation (RF) announced a $38,000 Phase II Bridge Grant award to Pantherics Incorporated following their recent competition. The Bridge Grant Program bolsters efforts to commercialize innovations developed at the UWM and foster development of startup companies that improve the Wisconsin economy. The program leverages a grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) Capital Catalyst Program to invest in early-stage enterprises based on UWM technologies. Pantherics has an exclusive commercial license to several UWM-RF patents based on the research findings of Pantherics founders and inventors, Drs. Alexander Arnold (CSO) and Douglas Stafford (CEO).

Pantherics is at the forefront of developing drugs that modulate peripheral GABA_A receptors (GABA_AR) for the treatment of inflammatory and smooth muscle disorders. For more than 50 years, drugs targeting GABA_AR have been approved for central nervous system indications and Pantherics is the first company to systematically repurpose this knowledge for the design of drugs for peripheral use. Two seminal discoveries are at the center of Pantherics’ approach:

i) discrete GABA_AR were identified by our group and others on immune and smooth muscle cells, with their structure, function, and pharmacology comparable to CNS neuronal GABA_AR.

ii) the company is the first to design selective, peripherally acting GABA_AR modulating drugs that do not cross the blood brain barrier and thus are devoid of central activity.

This platform technology and new therapeutic category offer a fundamentally novel and safe mechanism of drug action for inflammatory disease treatment, with applications in respiratory, dermatological, urinary, and intestinal disorders.

For more information contact Dr. Douglas Stafford, stafford@pantherics.com