The three new grants, combined with other grants renewed for 2011, brings total non dilutive R&D funding for 2011 to $4.8m, with an additional $3.3m committed for future years.
Out of all three grants, a $3.8m 5-year R01 grant has been awarded to identify and develop new ethylenediamine-based antibiotics for Clostridium difficile, an emerging infectious pathogen causing life-threatening gastrointestinal disease.
The rest of the two grants will support Sequella in its planned Phase 3 clinical studies and develop clinical sites in Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Eastern Europe for evaluation of SQ109 in multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and to investigate a new drug target in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
SQ109, identified as the lead drug candidate from among 63,000 diamine compounds synthesized in a combinatorial chemistry program, is currently under US IND.
SQ109 completed three phase 1 studies in the US and is currently being evaluated in Phase 2 efficacy studies in TB patients in Africa.