Profile

Diffusion Pharmaceuticals Inc is a publicly traded biotechnology and drug development company based in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S. It was co-founded in 2001 by American life sciences entrepreneur David Kalergis and University of Virginia Chemical Engineering Professor John L. Gainer. Gainer is the inventor of the company’s platform technology of oxygen diffusion-enhancing compounds and its lead drug, trans sodium crocetinate . TSC acts to increase the rate at which oxygen moves through blood plasma by the process of diffusion, a phenomenon that forms the basis for the company's name. On January 8, 2016, the formerly privately-held company merged with Restorgenex Cororation to become a publicly-traded NASDAQ-listed company with the trading symbol DFFN. TSC and other oxygen diffusion-enhancing compounds, including bipolar trans carotenoid salts , have been investigated by Diffusion Pharmaceuticals for treatment of conditions associated with reduced oxygen availability in tissues . Most recently, Diffusion has begun the initiation of clinical trials in the U.S. and Eastern Europe for the use of trans sodium crocetinate in the treatment of COVID-19 patients suffering from respiratory distress-related oxygen deficiency and the risk of multiple organ failure. Gainer invented the concept of oxygen diffusion-enhancing compounds and its specific embodiment, TSC, while a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Virginia. He secured the first patent on the molecule and its uses in 2000. Before TSC's invention, he and colleagues conducted research on the effects of oxygen diffusion-enhancing compounds in various animal disease models, including atherosclerosis, arthritis and cancer. At that time, crocetin, a naturally occurring carotenoid compound, was the focus of their research. With the invention of TSC, their research turned to the potential use of this synthetic oxygen diffusion-enhancing compound for the improved treatment of hemorrhagic shock on the battlefield. This research, which was supported financially by the United States Office of Naval Research , was conducted in Gainer’s University of Virginia laboratory. Following the company's formation by Kalergis and Gainer in 2001, both ONR and private funding was obtained, enabling company researchers to set up their own laboratory and, along with collaborators, perform further preclinical studies into uses of TSC in the treatment of hemorrhagic shock and other hypoxic conditions, such as ischemic stroke, central nervous system disorders, and cancer.