RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA, USA, September 20, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (CPI) and the Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) are pleased to announce that they were awarded a $295,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), to perform preclinical in vivo studies on a recently identified Nipah virus (NiV) inhibitor.
NiV is a bat-borne pathogen that results in acute and often fatal (recent outbreaks in India have demonstrated case fatality ~70%) respiratory and neurological disease for which there is currently no FDA approved treatment. There have been very few small molecule antivirals that have demonstrated activity against NiV in vitro or in vivo. We have recently identified a potential antiviral against Nipah and now propose to perform preclinical studies at UTMB’s Robert E. Shope and the Galveston National Lab (GNL) BSL-4 laboratories. Our ultimate aim is to bring a treatment to market for NiV which can be stockpiled by the USA and other countries in preparation for future outbreaks.
Sean Ekins, CEO of CPI, added, "We are excited to continue our collaboration with Dr. Alexander Freiberg and colleagues at GNL at UTMB with whom we have previously published widely on developing antiviral small molecules with activity against other BSL-4 pathogens including Ebola and Marburg. We are looking forward to generating the preclinical data needed to translate this molecule and move it closer to the clinic."
About Collaborations Pharmaceuticals:
Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has an active pipeline of molecules for infectious and rare diseases with considerable expertise in antiviral drug discovery. This work is aided by our inhouse software including Assay Central® software for data curation and machine learning as well as curated model collections such as MegaTox®, MegaTrans® and MegaPredict®. Most recently we have developed MegaSyn for generative drug design. For more information, http://www.collaborationspharma.com/
About UTMB
UTMB is an internationally recognized academic institution with strong expertise and resources in the global fight against infectious diseases. The GNL is an anchor lab of the NIAID Biodefense Laboratory Network with containment capabilities for biodefense research. More than 120 UTMB faculty and principal investigators from different departments conduct research with their teams in the GNL.
https://www.einpresswire.com/article/656529579/collaborations-pharmaceuticals-and-utmb-awarded-a-295-000-grant-for-preclinical-development-of-a-nipah-virus-treatment