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From POINT Biomedical Corp
BiSphere™ is a technology for drug delivery applications by ultrasound. BiSpheres™ consists of microparticles comprising a shell of an outer layer of a biologically compatible material and an inner layer of biodegradable polymer. The core of the microbubbles contains a filling gas, liquid, or solid for use in drug delivery or as a contrast agent for ultrasonic contrast imaging. The contrast agent particles are capable of passing through the capillary systems of a subject. The drug-loaded biSpheres™ would be administered intravenously and freely circulate throughout the body, while the drug encapsulated within would remain biologically unavailable. The drug would only be released when the biSpheres become flooded when passing through an externally directed ultrasound field.
The use of biSpheres™ to transport agents to specific sites within the body is expected to substantially increase local efficacy while decreasing systemic side effects or adverse reactions. The biSpheres™ may also serve to protect labile agents from metabolism or degradation. The noninvasive release of a protected, encapsulated agent can be controlled by ultrasound imaging to a depth of 20-30 cm from the skin surface.
The flexibility in size control in the biSphere™ technology has enabled the construction of submicron ultrasound contrast agents suitable for lymphatic imaging, with a diameter in the submicron range. This agent, while much smaller in size than CardioSphere®, is based on the BiSphere configuration: a shell within a shell enclosing a gas. The inner layer, made from a biodegradable polymer, provides the physical structure and controls the acoustic response. The outer layer functions as the biological interface. Each of these layers has been independently tailored to fulfill the specific requirements for lymphatic imaging.

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'POINT Biomedical was a privately held pharmaceutical company, founded in 1996 to pursue technologies related to imaging and drug delivery. POINT's core technology was based upon an ultrasonically responsive two-layer, biodegradable microsphere or BiSphere™. One of the most important features of this technology is the ability to noninvasively trigger the BiSpheres™ to release their contents at sites within the body using externally generated pulses of ultrasound. From this basic platform, POINT was developing a pipeline of products that leverage the unique properties of the BiSphere™ technology in the areas of imaging and therapeutics. POINT has initially focused development of this platform on the assessment of tissue specific blood flow. The lead product, CARDIOsphere®, is a pharmaceutical agent that will enable cardiologists to perform myocardial perfusion imaging studies in the office setting using ultrasound rather than more expensive and cumbersome nuclear medicine (or radioisotope) techniques.'
'According to BioSpace, Tom Feldman, ex-CEO of Point BioMedical, the company's lead investor, Vendanta Capital has chosen not to follow through with the second half of its $50 million private equity financing. Point BioMedical has withdrawn the new drug application for its molecular imaging agent CARDIOsphere and is liquidating its assets to avoid a formal bankruptcy proceeding in 2008.'

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From POINT Biomedical Corp
CARDIOsphere® is an ultrasound contrast agent for assessment of myocardial perfusion in patients with coronary artery disease composed of highly echogenic bispheres.
PB127 is a new developed microbubble with a bilayer polymer/albumin shell filled with nitrogen gas that has ideal characteristics for power harmonic Doppler. They can be destroyed by high power ultrasound, and spectral decorrelation between ultrasound pulses is maximized by rapid dissolution of the released nitrogen gas.
POINT Biomedical Corp. announced (March 01, 2004) that it has completed two Phase 3 trials of CARDIOsphere®. The Phase 3 trials were designed to evaluate the performance of CARDIOsphere® imaging relative to radionuclide imaging for detecting obstructive coronary artery disease and identifying the anatomic location of perfusion defects.