Westwood Bioscience
Website unreachable since Oct 17, 2026
The startup develops silica nano-particle technology that utilizes nanocarriers to enhance the delivery of chemotherapeutic agents specifically for pancreatic and colon cancer treatment. This approach aims to improve drug pharmacokinetics and tissue concentration while minimizing systemic toxicity associated with conventional chemotherapy.
- Healthcare Technology
- New Materials
- Biotechnology
Funding
Raised to date
$3.5MRaised to date based on public sources. This may differ from the amount the company actually raised and is based only on what is publicly available on the internet.
across 1 round
Incomplete round history. $3.5M of the $3.5M reported total isn’t matched to a known round (1 known round has an undisclosed amount).
Founders
Founder details are not available yet.
Product
Problem
Conventional chemotherapy for pancreatic and colon cancer suffers from poor pharmacokinetics, limited tumor tissue penetration, and significant systemic toxicity. The dense stromal environment of pancreatic tumors further contributes to drug resistance, reducing treatment efficacy and limiting patient outcomes.
Solution
Westwood Bioscience is developing the Silicasome, a nanocarrier technology comprising a mesoporous silica nanoparticle core with high drug packaging capacity, surrounded by a lipid bilayer. This smart nanocarrier delivers single or ratiometric combinations of chemotherapeutic agents directly to the cancer site, improving drug pharmacokinetics, biodistribution, and tissue concentrations while reducing systemic toxicity. The technology is specifically tuned to overcome drug resistance in the pancreatic tumor stroma, achieving improved efficacy over other nanocarrier approaches used for treating this disease.
Target Audience
Primary customers are clinical oncology researchers and pharmaceutical companies developing treatments for pancreatic and colon cancer, as well as healthcare providers seeking more effective and less toxic chemotherapy delivery options.
Features
- Mesoporous silica nanoparticle core provides extensive drug packaging space for high-capacity loading of chemotherapeutic agents
- Lipid bilayer coating enables encapsulation and controlled release of drugs, reducing systemic biodistribution and toxicity
- Supports delivery of both single agents and ratiometric combinations of chemotherapeutics for optimized treatment regimens
- Designed to overcome drug resistance in the pancreatic tumor stroma, a key barrier to effective treatment
- Preclinical testing has demonstrated improved efficacy and reduced toxicity compared to other nanocarrier platforms