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12 Hartford Business Journal • August 22, 2016 www.HartfordBusiness.com Oral Fluid Dynamics eyes clinical trials for artificial salivary gland By Keith Griffin kgriffin@HartfordBusiness.com F or many bioscience startups obtain- ing funding is usually a roadblock, but Farmington's Oral Fluid Dynamics has found early success, raising $175,000 in two years, with hopes of raising another $1.5 mil- lion by September. The early momentum could be related to the uniqueness of Oral Fluid's prod- uct, as well as the size of its potential cus- tomer base. The company is developing an artificial salivary gland to help the estimated 60 mil- lion people in the U.S. who suffer from dry mouth, a possible side effect for hundreds of prescription and nonprescription drugs that can also be brought on by aging, tobacco use, cancer therapy or autoimmune diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Sjogren's Syndrome. Currently, over-the-counter mouthwashes are the only treatment option. "I know people who suffer from this and I know there has been no solution either over the counter or prescription that works," said Robert Kelly, a UConn School of Dental Med- icine reconstructive sciences professor who developed Oral Fluid Dynamics' technology. "These people are desperate." The solution Kelly and his partners — Douglas Adams, a mechanical engineer with a Ph.D., who works in orthopeadic surgery at UConn Medical School, and Martin Freilich, an implant surgeon and prosthodontist at UConn Dental School — have come up with is a dental implant with a pump that takes fluid already present from the mandible bone and supplies it to the mouth. Kelly says it's the first mechanical solution for dry mouth. Oral Fluid Dynamics is about three years out from clinical trials and is working on get- ting a $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes for Health (NIH) by September. The startup is currently testing its product on rabbits with miniature pigs up next. "By the end of this we should have enough information for the Food and Drug Adminis- tration (FDA) for a limited clinical trial," that will focus on a small number of people to test the implant's safety, Kelly said. There are potential infection risks related to changes to the jawbone, where the implant is placed, similar to how a dental implant is done. Kelly, who owns 60 percent of the com- pany, said people have already been trying to get on the waiting list when human clinical trials begin. "It's either going to work really well or it isn't," Kelly said during a recent interview in a conference room outside his UConn Health office in Farmington. The company's main competition comes Building Bioscience A N H B J S E R I E S O N C T ' S B I O S C I E N C E S E C T O R from page 1 An enlarged model of Oral Fluid Dynamics' artificial salivary gland implant. Robert Kelly said Oral Fluid Dynamics' artificial salivary gland is at least three years away from clinical trials, but he's hopeful it will eventually provide relief to a share of the 60 million Americans who suffer from dry mouth. P H O T O | C O N T R I B U T E D H B J P H O T O | K E I T H G R I F F I N