Pharmos Corp. and Pharmatec Inc. of New York said Monday theyreceived a $450,000 Phase II grant from the NationalInstitutes of Health Small Business Research Program. Thegrant will cover Phase II studies of an injectable form ofcarbamazepine, the leading drug for the treatment of epilepsy.

Carbamazepine is currently available only in tablet or oralsuspension form. In injectable form it would be used forepileptic patients unable to take oral medication. The companyestimates that 4 million people in the United States sufferfrom the brain disorder that causes epilepsy.

The studies showed that an injectable form of the drug isfeasible using a water soluble-modified cyclodextrin excipientthat forms inclusion complexes with lipophilic drugs.

The company was granted orphan drug designation by the FDAin 1990 for the product.

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