Grants, Contracts And Awards To Biotech Companies: June 29-Oct. 25, 2006
Company* (Country; Symbol) | Funding Institution | Amount (M) | Type | Details (Date) |
Acambis plc (UK; ACAM) | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | $30 | Contract award | Acambis will supply a further 10M doses of ACAM2000 smallpox vaccine, for $30M; Acambis previously supplied 182.5M doses (9/13) |
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Achaogen Inc.* | U.S. Department of Defense | $24.7 | Defense Threat Reduction Agency contract | DTRA funded the first year of a potential $24.7M four-year deal under which Achaogen will develop small-molecule therapies to treat anthrax and other biothreat agents (10/24) |
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Adnexus Therapeutics Inc.* | National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases | ND | Phase I SBIR grant | Funds will support development of Adnectin products, which are human fibronectin (9/5) |
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Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ALNY) | U.S. Department of Defense | $1.1 | Defense appropriation | Funds will support development of RNAi therapeutics to combat natural or man-made biological threats (10/4) |
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Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ALNY) | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | $23 | Contract | The four-year award will support development of RNAi therapeutics as antiviral drugs targeting the Ebola virus (9/28) |
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Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ALNY) | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | $0.59 | SBIR grant | The one-year grant will support development of RNAi therapeutics as antivirals against multiple influenza strains, including the H5N1 virus (9/6) |
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Alteon Inc. (AMEX:ALT) | Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation | ND | Grant | Funds will support Phase II trials being run by an Alteon collaborator in Australia, which will test the use of alagebrium on renal function in patients with Type I diabetes and microalbuminuria (7/10) |
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Althea Technologies Inc.* | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | $0.91 | Subcontract from Advanced BioScience Laboratories Inc. | Althea got a manufacturing contract to produce a DNA-based HIV-1 vaccine (8/29) |
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Altor BioScience Corp.* | National Cancer Institute | $1.2 | Phase II SBIR grant | The two-year grant will support further development of processes for making therapeutic antibodies in transgenic lettuce (7/25) |
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Arbor Vita Corp.* | National Institutes of Health | $0.9 | Phase II SBIR grant | The two-year grant will fund work on an in vitro diagnostic test for cervical precancer and cancer, which is based on detection of the HPV-E6 oncoprotein (9/20) |
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Avanir Pharmaceuticals Inc. (AVNR) | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | $2 | Cooperative Research Partnerships for Biodefense grant | Funding will support establishment of a cGMP manufacturing process and to test efficacy of the fully human monoclonal antibody AVP-21D9 against inhalation anthrax in non-human primates (6/30) |
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Avant Immunotherapeutics Inc. (AVAN) | U.S. Department of Defense | $2.6 | Defense appropriation | Funds will support continued development of an oral combination vaccine to protect against anthrax and plague (10/2) |
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Avant Immunotherapeutics Inc. (AVAN) | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | $0.75 | Phase II SBIR grant | Funds will support further development and manufacture of Ty800, the company's single-dose, oral typhoid vaccine (9/27) |
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Avant Immunotherapeutics Inc. (AVAN) | Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation | $21 | Funding support | The International Vaccine Institute received the funding to conduct further clinical trials of Avant's CholeraGarde cholera vaccine in Bangladesh and India (8/2) |
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Axordia Ltd.* (UK) and Stem Cell Sciences Ltd. (UK; AIM:STEM) | European Commission | ND | ESTOOLS program funding | The companies are among those participating in the €12M ESTOOLS program focused on advancing the science surrounding human embryonic stem cells (8/28) |
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BioForce Nanosciences Holdings Inc. (OTC BB:BFNH) | National Human Genome Research Institute | $0.4 | Funding award | Funding will support development of the company's surface patterning tools; an additional $0.4M award is possible (9/26) |
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Bionovo Inc. (OTC BB:BNVI) | National Institutes of Health | $1 | RO1 grant | Funds will support research on a novel mechanism of nuclear transport regulation in cancer cells (7/12) |
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Biota Holdings Ltd. (Australia; ASX:BTA) | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | $2.4 | Contract award | Biota got $2.4M of a potential $8.5M over four years for development of a long-acting class of neuraminidase inhibitors, named FluNet (8/8) |
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Biothera* | National Institutes of Health | $3.6 | SBIR Advanced Technology Grant | Biothera got funding for Phase I of a five-year $3.6M program to develop its Imprime WGP drug to treat bone marrow injury from acute radiation exposure (9/5) |
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Brain AG* (Germany) | German government | ND | BioChance Plus research grant | The company and university groups will develop high-throughput systems in the area of industrially relevant biocatalysts (7/26) |
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Cangene Corp. (Canada; TSX:CNJ) | U.S. Department of Health and Human Services | $143 | Project BioShield contract | Cangene will provide 10,000 doses of anthrax immune globulin over three years under a modification to a September 2005 contract (7/28) |
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Celera Genomics (NYSE:CRA) | National Institutes of Health | $0.9 | Grant | Funds will support development of an in vitro diagnostic test for the H5N1 influenza virus (8/21) |
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Cepheid Inc. (CPHD) | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | ND | Phase II STTR grant | Cepheid and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey will use the funds in development of a PCR-based test for tuberculosis (8/30) |
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ChemDiv Inc.* and Yale University | National Institutes of Health | ND | Phase II grant | ChemDiv and Yale University were awarded the funding to further develop small-molecule inhibitors of the melanocortin-2 receptor GPCR (8/30) |
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Cleveland BioLabs Inc. (CBLI) | National Cancer Institute | $0.75 | Phase II SBIR contract | Funds will support development of small-molecule radioprotectors, to reduce cell damage from radiation exposure (9/6) |
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CombiMatrix Group (CBMX) | U.S. Department of Defense | $2 | Defense appropriations | Two allocations of $1M each will support continued development of microarray technologies for detecting biological-threat agents and infectious pathogens, such as the H5N1 influenza virus (10/9) |
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Crucell NV (the Netherlands; CRXL) | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | $16.2 | Contract award | Funding supports work with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Charles River Laboratories Inc. on development of an HIV vaccine that uses live vectors (10/9) |
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Cyto Pulse Sciences Inc.* | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | $2 | Phase II grant | The two-year award will fund development of the company's Easy Vax DNA vaccine delivery system, for use against biodefense pathogens (8/16) |
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CytRx Corp. (CYTR) | National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases | $0.22 | SBIR grant | Funds will support development of inhibitors to fatty acid synthase for the treatment of Type II diabetes and obesity (9/27) |
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Develogen AG* (Germany) | Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor (Israel) | €0.475 ($0.6) | Grant | The grant continues support being provided to DeveloGen's subsidiary in Israel for the DiaPep277 program for treating autoimmune diabetes (7/4) |
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DOR BioPharma Inc. (OTC BB:DORB) | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | $4.8 | Grant | Funds will support continued development of RiVax, a recombinant vaccine against ricin toxin (9/29) |
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DOR BioPharma Inc. (OTC BB:DORB) | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | $0.5 | Phase I SBIR grant | Funds will support research on BT-VACC, a multivalent mucosal vaccine against botulinum toxin (9/29) |
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Emergent BioSolutions Inc.* | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | $3.8 | Grants | Two grants totaling $3.8M will support development of the company's anthrax immune globulin therapeutic (8/31) |
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Epeius Biotechnologies Corp.* | U.S. FDA | ND | Grant | Funds will support research on pharmacology and toxicology of the gene therapy agent Rexin-G in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer (10/2) |
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Evogenix Ltd. (Australia; ASX:EGX) | Australian government | A$1.66 ($1.2) | Commercial Ready grant | The two-year grant will support development of DMF10, an anticancer hamster antibody (7/5) |
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FibroGen Inc.* | National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute | ND | Phase II SBIR grant | Funds will support development of hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase inhibitors for treating sickle cell disease (8/22) |
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Galapagos NV (Belgium; Euronext:GLPG) | Flanders government (Belgium) | €1.8 ($2.3) | Grant | Funds will support development of biological models for treating rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis; Galapagos will work with three Belgian institutions on the programs (7/26) |
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GeneGo Inc.* | National Cancer Institute | ND | Phase II SBIR grant | Funds will support work with the Mayo Clinic on discovery of biomarkers implicated in breast cancer (10/3) |
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GeneGo Inc.* | U.S. Department of Defense | $0.75 | Phase II SBIR grant | Funds will support development of a systems biology suite for functional analysis of proteomics data (8/8) |
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Genomatix Software GmbH* (Germany) | Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany) | $1.6 | BioChance research contract | The company and two academic partners got two years of fundings for research in RNAi-mediated regulatory networks (9/14) |
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GenVec Inc. (GNVC) | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | $3.56 | Subcontract award from SAIC-Frederick Inc. | Additional funds under the deal with the NIAID's Vaccine Research Center will support development of adenovector-based HIV vaccines (10/10) |
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GenVec Inc. (GNVC) | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | $0.43 | Phase I SBIR grant | The Biodefense Program funds will support development of an adenovector-based vaccine technology (8/29) |
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GTC Biotherapeutics Inc. (GTCB) | National Institutes of Health | $1.4 | SBIR grant | GTC got additional funds for its CD137 monoclonal antibody program, which targets solid tumors and autoimmune diseases (10/5) |
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Helicos BioSciences Corp.* | National Human Genome Research Institute | $2 | Grant | Funds will support fund research of a single-molecule sequencing technology for low-cost resequencing applications and de novo sequencing of large genomes (10/4) |
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Immatics Biotechnologies GmbH* (Germany) | Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany) | €0.57 ($0.71) | Grants | Grants will support preclinical development of a therapeutic vaccine for pancreatic cancer, and development of a process for isolating tumor-specific T cells from cancer patients (9/6) |
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Immunotope Inc.* | U.S. Army | $0.78 | Phase II SBIR grant | Funds will be used in development of an autoantibody-based, early stage diagnostic test for prostate cancer (10/23) |
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Inovio Biomedical Corp. (AMEX:INO) | U.S. Department of Defense | $1.1 | Defense appropriation | For development of its electroporation-based gene delivery technology for vaccination against infectious diseases, including bioterrorism agents (10/19) |
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Invitrogen Corp. (IVGN) | U.S. Department of Defense | $1.24 | Contract award | Funding is an extension to existing contract to support research on protein microarray technology to detect and analyze biothreat agents (9/12) |
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Javelin Pharmaceuticals Inc. (AMEX:JAV) | National Cancer Institute | $0.75 | Phase II SBIR grant | Funds will support clinical development of PMI-150 (intranasal ketamine) for treating pain (7/7) |
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Juvaris BioTherapeutics Inc.* | National Cancer Institute | ND | Phase I SBIR grant | One-year grant will support work with Penn State College of Medicine on a therapeutic vaccine approach for treating acute myelogenous leukemia (9/26) |
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Juvaris BioTherapeutics Inc.* | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | $1 | Phase I SBIR grant | One-year grant will support work with Colorado State University to develop approach for treating F. tularensis (tularemia), a priority pathogen (9/13) |
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Lentigen Corp.* | National Institutes of Health | ND | Phase I SBIR grant | For evaluation of using lentiviral-engineered T cells that express chimeric receptors and signaling modules to improve efficacy of cancer therapies directed against the tumor-associated antigen mesothelin (10/17) |
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Lexicon Genetics Inc. (LEXG) | U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency | ND | Funding award | Lexicon will work to identify targets for drug discovery efforts in the area of sleep deprivation, under a one-year contract (9/26) |
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LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals Inc.* | U.S. Department of Defense | $2.3 | Contract award | Funding will support continued validation of a third-generation mucosal anthrax vaccine (7/6) |
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MacroGenics Inc.* | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | $50 | Contract award | The five-year award will support development of a preclinical monoclonal antibody to West Nile virus through Phase II trials (10/3) |
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MacroGenics Inc.* | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | $6.8 | Grant | Funds of up to $6.8M will be used to support development of a monoclonal antibody against smallpox virus, in collaboration with the NIAID (10/3) |
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MacroGenics Inc.* | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | $6 | Subcontract from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital | Up to $6M will be awarded for development of cross-neutralizing monoclonal antibodies specific for the H5N1 influenza virus (10/3) |
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MaxThera Inc.* | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | $0.76 | Phase I SBIR grant | The two-year grant will support efforts to design and develop antibiotics against potential lethal infections complicated by antibiotic resistance (9/22) |
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Nastech Pharmaceutical Co. Inc. (NSTK) | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | ND | Phase I SBIR grant | Funds will be used for further development of small-interfering RNA therapeutics to prevent and treat influenza (9/29) |
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Omicia Inc.* | National Human Genome Research Institute | $0.79 | Phase II SBIR grant | Funds will be used to refine the disease marker genome annotation system prototyped by the company during Phase I of the grant (9/13) |
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PharmAthene Inc.* | National Institutes of Health | $1.7 | Countermeasures Against Chemical Threats grant | Funds will support continued development of the broad-spectrum chemical nerve agent therapy, Protexia, a recombinant form of human butyrylcholinesterase (10/18) |
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PharmAthene Inc.* and Medarex Inc. (MEDX) | U.S. Department of Defense | $1 | Defense appropriation | Funds will support ongoing development of Valortim, a fully human monoclonal antibody being developed for anthrax infection (10/11) |
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PharmAthene Inc.* | Department of Defense, U.S Army Space and Missile Command | $34.7 | Contract | Multiyear contract worth up to $213M is for development of the broad-spectrum chemical nerve agent prophylaxis, Protexia; $34.7M already was allocated (9/25) |
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Pluristem Life Systems Inc. (Israel; OTC BB:PLRS) | Ministry of Trade and Industry (Israel) | $0.47 | Grant | The royalty-bearing grant will support development of Pluristem's stem cell product PLX-I, which may have use in bone marrow transplants (8/24) |
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Pressure BioSciences Inc. (PBIO) | National Institutes of Health | $0.149 | Phase I SBIR grant | Grant will help fund experiments on a pressure cycling technology for use in extracting protein biomarkers, subcellular molecular complexes and organelles from cells and tissues (10/4) |
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ProlX Pharmaceuticals Corp.* | National Institutes of Health | $4.5 | Phase II SBIR grants | Two grants totaling about $4.5M were awarded for clinical and preclinical development of the cancer drugs PX-12 and PX-866, respectively (7/31) |
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ProNAi Therapeutics Inc.* | Michigan Economic Development Corp. | $3.3 | 21st Century Jobs Fund award | Funding will support development of nucleic-acid drugs based on DNA interference (9/12) |
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Protiva Biotherapeutics Inc.* (Canada) | U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency | $1.4 | Grant | Protiva is part of a consortium that together is getting $3.6M to develop a therapy for hemorrhagic fever viral infection; it includes the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (9/19) |
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PTC Therapeutics Inc.* | Office of Orphan Products Development of the FDA | ND | Grant | Funds will support patient-related costs of ongoing Phase II trial of PTC124 for treating nonsense-mutation-mediated Duchenne muscular dystrophy (10/19) |
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PTC Therapeutics Inc.* | U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency | $17.2 | Funding award | Funds will go toward discovery and development of broad-spectrum small-molecule antibacterials against biowarfare or bioterrorism agents (10/2) |
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PTC Therapeutics Inc.* | U.S. Department of Defense | $2.2 | Grant | The three-year grant will be used on development of PTC299 as a treatment for breast cancer (9/26) |
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QBI Life Sciences (division of Quintessence Biosciences Inc.) | National Institutes of Health | ND | Phase I grant | QBI will work with GWC Technologies to develop an assay that provides absorption profiles for early stage drug candidates (7/14) |
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Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (REGN) | National Institutes of Health | ND | Grant | Regeneron will use its VelociGene technology to target 3,500 genes under a five-year grant related to the NIH's Knockout Mouse Project (9/7) |
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RegeneRx Bio-pharmaceuticals Inc. (AMEX:RGN) | FDA's Office of Orphan Products Development | $0.545 | Grant | Fund will support clinical development of its drug candidate based on thymosin beta 4 for treating the rare genetic disease epidermolysis bullosa (8/9) |
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Rx3 Pharmaceuticals Inc.* | National Institutes of Health | $1.5 | Grants | Two grants totaling $1.5M will help fund work in the area of antibiotic development (9/25) |
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SIGA Technologies Inc. (SIGA) | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | $16.5 | Contract award | Three-year funding will support development of its smallpox drug candidate SIGA-246 (10/4) |
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SIGA Technologies Inc. (SIGA) | National Institutes of Health | $6 | Grant | Funding will support development of antiviral drugs for Lassa fever virus (9/12) |
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SIGA Technologies Inc.(SIGA) | National Institutes of Health | $4.8 | Phase II SBIR grant | Funding will support clinical development of its smallpox drug candidate SIGA-246 (8/2) |
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Syntaxin Ltd.* (UK) | UK Department for Trade and Industry | £1.2 ($2.2) | Collaborative R&D grant | Syntaxin, University College London and the UK Health Protection Agency will work to develop enhanced methods for bioprocessing complex proteins, for use as drugs (7/6) |
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Tissue Genesis Inc.* | U.S. Department of Defense | $4.5 | Contract award | Funding will support continued research and development on cell recovery and cell delivery systems (9/18) |
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VASTox plc (UK; AIM:VOX) | UK Department of Trade and Industry | £0.37 ($0.69) | Matching grant | Funding, including academic collaboratories, totaled £0.91M, for a research program in stem cells (9/20) |
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Velcura Therapeutics Inc.* | National Institute on Aging | $0.274 | Phase I SBIR grant | Funds will be used to further identify the genes and/or protein networks modulated during human bone formation (8/30) |
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Xechem International Inc. (OTC BB:XKEM) | National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute | $0.473 | SBIR grant | Funds will support toxicity studies on 5-HMF, a five-membered heterocyclic anti-sickling compound (10/4) |
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XOMA Ltd. (XOMA) | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | $16 award | Contract | Funding will support pre-Phase I development of monoclonal antibodies for treating botulism resulting from bioterrorism (7/31) |
Notes: | ||||
* Indicates a privately held company. | ||||
Currency conversions reflect values at the time of a deal's announcement. | ||||
SBIR = Small Business Innovation Research; STTR = Small Business Technology Transfer. | ||||
Unless otherwise indicated, symbols listed are on the Nasdaq market. | ||||
AIM = Alternative Investment Market; AMEX = American Stock Exchange; ASX = Australian Stock Exchange; NYSE = New York Stock Exchange; OTC BB = Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board; TSX = Toronto Stock Exchange. |