Massachusetts-based AVIA Biosystems has been awarded a $1.25-million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institutes of Health. The award supports the development of instrumentation to measure the stability of biotherapeutics.

AVIA Biosystems will design, develop, manufacture, and sell new laboratory instrumentation for the bioanalytical and biophysical characterization of proteins and other biologics. The instrument being developed in this SBIR-supported program will be AVIA’s first commercial product.

“This platform will significantly accelerate the development of new protein therapeutics,” said Dr. Richard K. Brown, president of AVIA Biosystems. “We greatly anticipate its introduction, and the benefits it will bring to the biopharmaceutical community.”

Protein therapeutics, the fastest growing segment in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, account for annual sales totaling over $70 billion. The category includes monoclonal antibodies, recombinant proteins, chimeric proteins, and other protein receptor constructs.