James Cardelli, SBIR Recipient

How SBIR Impacted Your Life:

I am a co founder and CTO for a biotech company called Oleolive Inc launched in 2018. The SBIR program has been absolutely essential in our discovery and development of multiple therapeutic assets; we have received 10 awards over the last 7 years. Our therapeutic assets include fibrosis drugs, cancer drugs and a drug to treat meth use disorder.

The state of Louisiana also has a program that allows up to 30% of every award is returned as a state tax credit which can be sold on the open market. This has resulted in our company receiving on average an additional 25% of the award value as development money. This cashflow combination has allowed our company to continue grow and provide the resources to move our assets closer to clinical trials and commercialization.

Venture capital is essential non existent in the state of Louisiana so these award funds have been game changers for us.