A Birmingham startup developing a prescription eczema and psoriasis patch won top honors at Alabama Launchpad’s Life Sciences Track competition.
AJ Singhal, founder of Kalm Therapeutics, will receive $100,000 in non-dilutive funding in addition to mentorship and networking opportunities.
The other two finalists were Flexicoat, a Mountain Brook-based company creating self-sterilizing biomedical device coatings, and Mobile-based Gulf Sterilization, which provides sterilization services to the health care industry.
“This award will allow Kalm to treat more patients and run more biomarker tests during our upcoming clinical trial for people suffering with chronic eczema,” said Singhal. “We are excited about having impact in patients’ lives and the clinical trial data, which will drive advancement of Kalm’s drug products.”
Alabama Launchpad is a program of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama in partnership with Innovate Alabama.
Judges for this cycle were Nancy Wenger Keller, MBA candidate at MIT Sloan School of Management, who has worked in biotech throughout her career; Jamie Tyler, Ph.D., professor of neuroscience at UAB; and Kellie Clark, former health care practice chair of gener8tor and board member of Health Rounds.
