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SomaGenics receives NIH grant to develop hepatitis D therapeutic
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SomaGenics received a 3-year, $2.9 million award from the National Institutes of Health’s Small Business Innovation Research program to support development of the company’s RNA interference-based approach for hepatitis D, according to a press release.
The company’s HDV therapeutic was designed to simultaneously target the virus at multiple stages of its life cycle using proprietary synthetic short hairpin RNA technology.
The synthetic short hairpin RNA technology are highly potent RNA interference triggers with IC50’s in the low picomolar range. The advantage of SomaGenics’ technology is that they consist of single chemical entities, simplifying their production and purification.
“Our combination, multitarget approach reduces the likelihood of treatment resistance and targets nonhost entities, lowering the chance of toxicity,” Anne Dallas, PhD, and principal scientist with SomaGenics’ HDV program. “We are excited that SomaGenics’ therapeutic may have the potential to cure HDV patients.”
Reference: www.somagenics.com