The funding was supported under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to provide on-going support for Kineta’s work on a new class of antiviral drugs.
The antiviral program includes Agonists of the Retinoic Acid Inducible Gene I (RIG-I) Innate Immune Pathway which focuses to target RNA viruses like hepatitis C, influenza, West Nile virus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), Dengue fever and the common cold.
Kineta president and CEO Charles Magness said they have discovered five families of drug candidates that activate an essential innate immune pathway.
"With this new infusion of support from the NIH, we will advance at least one lead drug candidate for clinic development," Magness said.