Acetylon Pharma gets two therapeutic discovery project grants

The grants were awarded by the Internal Revenue Service and National Institutes of Health to reimburse a portion of research and development investment by Acetylon in two of its pharmaceutical development programs targeted for the treatment of cancers and inflammatory diseases.

Acetylon plans to use the grant funding to support the initiation of clinical trials of its histone deacetylase-6 (HDAC6) inhibitor drug candidate for patients with multiple myeloma and to complete the preclinical development of a second HDAC6 inhibitor for inflammatory autoimmune diseases.

Acetylon Pharma president and CEO Walter Ogier said that Acetylon has developed a pipeline of HDAC inhibitors with enhanced target selectivity and they are gratified to have two of the drug development programs recognised by maximum dollar amount QTDP grants.

"These additional funds will be very helpful as we advance our HDAC6 inhibitors program into clinical development," Ogier said.

A total of $1bn in grants and tax credits have been awarded over the past month under the QTDP program, which was established by the 2010 Health Care Reform Act to provide stimulus funds to life science companies with fewer than 250 employees.