BioTherapeutics awarded National Institutes of Health; Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program grant to advance novel therapy for Type 2 Diabetes
BLACKSBURG, VA: BioTherapeutics, pre-clinical stage, small-molecule company advancing therapeutics for inflammatory diseases and diabetes, announced today that it has been awarded $188,333 by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) STTR program. The grant will be funded by the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to support the Development of Novel LANCL2-based drugs for treating Type 2 Diabetes (T2D), a world-wide epidemic affecting over 40 million people worldwide with costs of $38 billion and is expected to grow to $58 billion by 2019.
Biotherapeutics has demonstrated, in animal models, that its unique lanthionine synthetase C-like 2 (LANCL2) pathway and lead compounds normalize glucose levels and suppress inflammation comparable to Thiazolidinediones (+$5B Market) with no adverse side effects. Collaborating with Biotherapeutics on the grant is Dr. Marion Ehrich at Virginia Tech whose leadership in safety testing will help advance the initial development along the regulatory pathway towards investigational new drug (IND) approval.
This STTR grant follows closely on the heels of another grant funded through the NIH to further advance BTI’s lead compounds targeting gut inflammation. Beyond the anti-diabetic benefits, the LANCL2 pathway also reduces the body’s inflammatory response for chronic conditions such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). According to the company’s founder – Dr. Josep Bassaganya-Riera, “The improved effectiveness and safety profile of this novel LANCL2 pathway and BTI’s lead anti-diabetic compounds, has the potential to positively impact millions of patients worldwide afflicted by these chronic and debilitating conditions.”
About Biotherapeutics
A pre-clinical stage, small-molecule company advancing therapeutics for inflammation and diabetes. BioTherapeutics was established in 2008 with the mission to develop safer and more effective treatments for human diseases. The company holds numerous patents on innovative mechanisms of anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic action. The technology was validated with numerous pre-clinical studies resulting in 12 peer-reviewed publications elucidating a novel pathway and showing the compounds to be both safe and effective. Currently BioTherapeutics is expanding rapidly to support additional pre-clinical studies with the goal of submitting an IND application to the Food and Drug Administration.
Through focused execution, strong patents and committed leadership, Biotherapeutics intends to leverages the broad development pipeline and unique pathway to effectively treat some of the largest threats to global health with significant market opportunity.