Tuesday, July 8, 2008

NIH awards EpiVax $600K for diabetes treatment research

By Mass High Tech Staff

EpiVax Inc., a Providence, R.I., biotech firm, reports it has garnered a $600,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop a treatment for type 1 diabetes.

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, a division of the NIH, awarded the two-year grant to EpiVax to conduct pre-clinical research of a drug intended to reduce the destruction of insulin-making cells in diabetic patients, according to EpiVax.

EpiVax has been developing the diabetes treatment with funds from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International, a nonprofit based in New York City, CEO Annie De Groot said in a statement. The company plans to continue the study in collaboration with David Scott, a professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and physician Robert Smith, director of the Hallett Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology at Rhode Island Hospital. De Groot said her company hopes to begin clinical trials of the treatment within three years.

The privately held firm said that more than 3 million Americans suffer from type 1 diabetes, a chronic autoimmune disease that causes the pancreas to stop producing insulin. Insulin is a hormone that lets the body draw energy from food, the company said.

EpiVax says that it discovers drugs with proprietary algorithms that identify proteins, which limit the body’s immune response. Last year the company received a $591,000 NIH grant to advance the firm’s research of a vaccine for tuberculosis.