Materia Announces National Institutes of Health (NIH) Phase II Funding

PASADENA, CA--(Marketwire - May 01, 2012) -

Materia announced today the receipt of a Phase II Fast Track Small Business Technology Transfer grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the continued development of functional polymers for use in organic synthesis.

The new Phase II program, which furthers the Phase I joint effort between Materia and Professor Paul Hanson of the University of Kansas, will focus on polymer process development and scale-up as well as beta testing by key industrial collaborators.

“Materia appreciates NIH’s vision and continued support,” stated Dr. Michael Giardello, Materia’s Chief Executive Officer. “These materials provide higher functional group content, reduced swelling, and enhanced solvent compatibility versus state-of-the-art polystyrene-bound reagents, and their commercialization may ultimately expedite the timeframe at which new therapeutic agents become available to consumers.”

“We are excited and honored at our continued collaboration with Materia, Inc. which will enable further development of this new and challenging science,” added Professor Hanson. “Materia’s expertise in polymerization, scale up and commercialization will drive efforts moving forward.”

About Materia
Materia was founded in 1998 to commercialize olefin metathesis catalyst technology. This market-enabling, Nobel Prize-winning, green chemical technology enables chemical compounds to be synthesized with greater efficiency, under less stringent reaction conditions, and with reduced byproducts and hazardous waste. Metathesis has been accepted as an emerging “green technology” platform and has been broadly adopted by the pharmaceutical, chemical, and polymer industries. As stated by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences when awarding the 2005 Nobel Prize, “metathesis is an example of how important basic science has been applied for the benefit of man, society, and the environment.” For more information, visit www.materia-inc.com.

About the University of Kansas Chemical Methodologies and Library Development Center (KU-CMLD)
The NIH Center in Chemical Methodologies and Library Development (CMLD, Jeffrey Aubé, PI, Medicinal Chemistry) is a multidisciplinary initiative established in 2003 to enable the development of new chemical methodologies to enhance projects directed at library synthesis. Current focus includes the broad areas of microwave-assisted flow synthesis, methods for complex scaffold synthesis, organometallic parallel synthesis and the preparation of libraries based on natural products.

This content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences or the National Institutes of Health.