Vion wins grant to help develop cancer drugs
C.J. Abate, Register Staff July 13, 2001
NEW HAVEN - Vion Pharmaceuticals has been awarded a $100,000 Small Business Innovation and Research grant to continue developing a group of its anti-cancer drugs.
The New Haven-based biotechnology company was awarded the grant by the National Institutes of Health, a federal medical research center based in Maryland. The money will be used to develop a second generation of Sulfonyl Hydrazine Prodrugs (SHP), which are DNA-damaging antitumor drugs. "The grant is a way to supplement our research budget and it is a way to gain scientific validation from the outside," Terrence Doyle, vice president of research and development for Vion. The first member of the SHP drug family, VNP40101M, is presently in Phase I clinical trials, Doyle said. In addition to the SHPs, the company is developing Triapine — a chemotherapy drug — and TAPET, a modified salmonella bacteria that carry anticancer drugs to tumors. Vion received a total of $800,000 in grant money last year, compared to $300,000 in 1999. Vion focused the money on the development of Triapine and the salmonella bacteria, Doyle said. Ivonne Marondel, an analyst with Gerard Klauer Mattison in New York, said Vion is a company that knows how to maximize its financial resources to further its drug research. "They advanced all of their products into clinical trials and that is a pretty good use of money," Marondel said. Vion had revenues of $947,000 last year.
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