HANOVER, Md., Jan. 15, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- NOVASCREEN Biosciences Corporation (NovaScreen) today announced that it has been awarded a five-year, $12.95 million contract by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The contract, "Innate Immune Receptors and Adjuvant Discovery," focuses on establishing a pipeline of new drug candidates that stimulate the natural capacity of the human innate immune system to initiate and sustain appropriate immunological responses. The drug candidates will be selected for their potential to function as new and improved adjuvants, which are general immune-boosting agents. When combined with specific vaccine antigens, adjuvants can help generate protective immunity against a wide variety of infectious agents, including those that may pose threats to our nation from bioterrorism.
"We are gratified that the NIAID/NIH biodefense program has demonstrated its confidence in our screening and drug discovery capabilities by selecting us to perform this important project," said David M. Manyak, Ph.D., President and CEO of NovaScreen. "This award will provide NovaScreen with the resources to complete discovery-stage activities and pre-clinical evaluations of promising compounds that display adjuvant activity. This adjuvant development project is an important component of our drug discovery and development efforts and will build on NovaScreen's broad expertise in receptor pharmacology, high throughput screening assays, natural product chemistry, and in silico (computer-based) drug design."
The innate immune system is the body's first line of defense against infectious micro-organisms. In recent years, a group of molecules, called Toll-Like Receptors (TLRs), located on the surface of certain immune system cells, have been found to play a key role in the recognition of infectious microbes. Through activation of these TLRs, the body first mounts a defense (innate immune response) against the invading microbe, then stimulates other immune system cells to join in a more powerful sustained response, called "adaptive immunity." Under this contract, NovaScreen will develop a broad range of miniaturized tests, or screening assays, for identifying compounds that act through TLRs and can stimulate both a potential immediate defensive effect and a long-lasting adaptive immune response of the type necessary for successful vaccination.
"Many new and improved vaccines against agents of bioterrorism will require new adjuvants to induce robust immunity and to generate an appropriate and protective immune response," noted Peter S. Carlson, Ph.D., Vice President of NovaScreen, and Principal Investigator of the NIAID contract. "Currently, there is only one adjuvant licensed in the U.S. for general human use and it has failed to provide appropriate immunostimulatory activity for a number of vaccine candidates. Many new lead compounds with potent and safe adjuvant activity should emerge from this NIAID-supported project. We are hopeful that the intended outcome of this project will become a valuable resource for protecting our nation against bioterrorism threats, as well as better protecting our children against more conventional sources of infection."
About the Company:
NOVASCREEN Biosciences Corporation (www.novascreen.com), a closely-held private company, is a leading provider of drug discovery and development services and products, with a focus on in vitro (laboratory-based) screening assays and in silico (computer-based) predictive screening tools. With more than 10 years of operating history, NovaScreen is widely recognized as a pioneer in the field of receptor pharmacology, with particular expertise in G-Protein Coupled Receptors and other molecular targets that mediate disease states and side effects in the central nervous system. NovaScreen's core competencies now extend to side effect and therapeutic targets across the major organ systems and disease areas, and include assay development, discovery (high throughput) screening, selectivity screening, profiling, in vitro toxicology, and in vitro pharmacokinetics. NovaScreen has developed and routinely performs more than 350 receptor, enzyme, ion channel, transporter, and cell-based screening assays relevant to the discovery of new drugs and/or the selection and optimization of new drug candidates. Services and products are provided to more than 180 clients worldwide, including a majority of the leading drug and biotechnology companies.
NovaScreen has developed a proprietary series of content databases, data mining software, and algorithms to create a comprehensive map of the molecular recognition patterns and functional activity relationships between drug targets and drug-like chemical compounds. This pharmacoinformatics technology platform has enabled the development of predictive tools for in silico screening that NovaScreen believes will define how new pharmaceuticals are discovered and developed in the future. NovaScreen's initial pharmacoinformatics product for in silico drug discovery and development is the Receptor Selectivity Mapping Database (RSMDB(r)).
NovaScreen's platform technologies are also being applied directly to drug discovery and development programs primarily through grants and contracts with the National Institutes of Health. These areas include cocaine medications/drug abuse (NIDA), innate immunity/adjuvants (NIAID), and various central nervous system-related disorders (NINDS, NIAAA).