DURHAM, N.C., Oct. 15, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Parion Sciences, a company dedicated to the development of novel treatments for pulmonary and ocular diseases, announced today that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded up to $15.6 million over 5 years in grants to The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) and The University of Colorado, Denver (UCD) to conduct research with mucolytic agents discovered by Parion Sciences and to enable Investigational New Drug (IND) applications for Parion’s molecules.
The first year of funding awarded for the Centers for Advanced Diagnostics and Experimental Therapeutics in Lung Disease (CADET) grant awards include $1.46 million ($7.7 million total) to UNC-CH to conduct pre-clinical research on Parion’s mucolytic program in the areas of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Cystic Fibrosis (CF). The second CADET grant was awarded to UCD for $1.52 million in the first year ($7.9 million total) in support of pre-clinical research on Parion’s mucolytic program in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF). The two grants will be utilized over a total of 5 years with a renewal after the first 2 years and annual reviews.
“As a science driven company, it is gratifying to partner with such premier academic institutions like UNC and UCD to successfully secure the competitive NIH Awards.” stated Paul Boucher, President of Parion Sciences. “The NIH support and the combined expertise of the collaborations boost our innovative mucolytic program as we advance through the pre-clinical stages.”
Parion Sciences is designing and testing novel mucolytic agents that specifically target mucus structure to facilitate mucus clearance from the lungs. There is a need for agents that clear adherent secretions from the lungs in acute and chronic pulmonary disorders. If approved by the FDA, the agents will become drugs aimed at dramatically improving the lives of millions of people who suffer from COPD, CF, and IPF.
About Parion Sciences
Parion Sciences is a development stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to research, development and commercialization of treatments to improve and extend the lives of patients with innate mucosal surface defense deficiencies of the eye or airway. Parion has a diverse pipeline of pre-clinical and clinical candidates for the treatment of these diseases via distinctive mechanisms of action and approaches. Parion is at the forefront of ENaC development and is leveraging our scientific expertise in epithelial biology to expand our platforms and novel chemical compounds into new indications to treat mucosal defects. Parion has received support and grant funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics, Inc. For more information, please see our website at www.Parion.com.
Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Heart, Lung, And Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Numbers UH2HL123645 and UH2HL123442. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
SOURCE Parion Sciences
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