A researcher said Smart Act funding enabled safety testing for a therapy designed to treat diseases that occur during pregnancy, including preeclampsia.

The researcher told the meeting, “The Smart Act funding provided key revenue to conduct some safety testing that's necessary in the drug development process.” They said that safety testing is a required step before any new drug is used in humans and that without the funding “we wouldn't have been able to do that step of the drug development process.”

The researcher described the project as a technical approach that could treat pregnant women without transferring the investigational drug to the fetus. They said the Smart Act award paid for expanded safety testing that moves the therapy closer to readiness for human use and called the funding “a key cog in the process of advancing the testing of our therapy to the point where it's ready to be used in humans.”

According to the researcher, development has involved work at a medical center and collaboration with private companies. They said the project’s advancement could lead to additional jobs and increased revenue for the state and for both the institution and private companies involved. The researcher added that, absent the Smart Act investment, the team would still be seeking additional funding to continue development.

No formal action or vote on the grant or the project was recorded in the transcript excerpt. The remarks occurred as a summary of how the Smart Act award supported preclinical safety testing and the research team's goal of bringing the therapeutic to market for treatment of preeclampsia.