Monday, March 2, 2009

Aileron lands $500K for cancer therapies

By Mass High Tech staff

The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation reports that it has awarded $500,000 each in grant funding to a pair of Cambridge-based companies, Aileron Therapeutics Inc. and Astex Therapeutics Ltd., for cancer therapy research.

The Norwalk, Conn.-based foundation awarded the grants through its 2008 MMRF Biotech Investment Awards, multi-year research grant commitments to fund the early-stage drug development of novel compounds and approaches that show potential in treating multiple myeloma.

The foundation also awarded a $500,000 grant to Cambridge, U.K.-based Astex Therapeutics Ltd.

If Aileron and Astex achieve certain clearly defined milestones, the MMRF will grant an additional $500,000 to each company in 2010, according to foundation officials.

The MMRF funding will support the development of Aileron Therapeutics’ Stapled Peptide, which uses a small piece of a naturally occurring protein that restores programmed cell death in multiple myeloma cells; and Astex Therapeutics’ proprietary cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitor, a drug that blocks the uncontrolled spread of multiple myeloma cells.

In April of 2008, Aileron brought in $10 million in a private placement to fund an expansion of its drug-discovery staff and to open a 10,000-square-foot research facility in Cambridge.