EXTON, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Melior Discovery is pleased to announce that it has been selected by SFA Therapeutics as a partner on SFA’s recently awarded “Save Our Start-ups” (SOS) grant. The award was issued by Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania and the State of Pennsylvania.

In this important effort to counter the effects of the COVID-19 virus SFA005 is expected to address the cytokine storm linked to Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) experienced by patients infected with COVID-19. It is being evaluated both as a preventative and a treatment in a validated liposaccharide challenge (LPS) animal model of ARDS. Success in this animal study would be an important precursor to human testing.

Dr. Ira Spector, CEO of SFA Therapeutics stated that, “The quest to overcome the effects of the COVID-19 virus is an effort vital to humanity. SFA welcomes the partnership of Melior Discovery and we are delighted that continued support from Ben Franklin Technology Partners and the State of Pennsylvania will enable us to draw upon our unique technology in that effort.”

“We are honored to be selected as a partner by Dr. Spector and his team for this important study,” said Andrew Reaume, CEO of Melior Discovery, Inc.

About Melior

Melior Discovery and Melior Pharmaceuticals, its sister company, are leaders in pharmaceutical drug repositioning using the unique theraTRACE^® platform comprised of multiplexed in vivo disease models. Melior is using these capabilities to build an internal pipeline of development candidates and also partners with pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies to apply the theraTRACE^® platform and its in-depth in vivo pharmacology expertise to their development candidates. Melior Discovery and Melior Pharmaceuticals are privately held and located in Exton, PA. For more information, visit www.meliordiscovery.com

About SFA Therapeutics

SFA Therapeutics, Inc. is a bio-pharmaceutical company focused on new human-microbiome-based advancements in the treatment of inflammatory diseases, targeting NF-kB and RAS. Chronic inflammation has been implicated in a wide range of diseases, including HCC, Psoriatic Arthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus (SLE), Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), Crohn’s Disease, Liver Disease and relapse/recurrence in AML and CML.

Please visit https://sfatherapeutics.com/ to learn more.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200624005197/en/