They're keeping their nose to the grind stone and taking care of business. I like the fact that they have further applications for funding pending, even though these are pretty tiny. These came out last night and I just noticed it.
Anaxagoras
<<CoCensys, Inc. Awarded Its Third SBIR Grant in 1999; Funding Provided for CoCensys' Caspase Inhibitor Program for Stroke
PR Newswire - June 03, 1999 21:14
IRVINE, Calif., June 3 /PRNewswire/ -- CoCensys, Inc. (Nasdaq: COCN) has been awarded a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The grant focuses on discovering compounds that are "caspase inhibitors," which may prove useful to treat stroke sufferers. This is the third SBIR grant awarded to CoCensys in 1999. The award, which totals $750,000 payable over the next two years, will fund caspase inhibitor research at CoCensys and at Cytovia, Inc., a technology spin off from CoCensys.
Caspases are a class of proteases that play pivotal roles in mediating programmed cell death (apoptosis) and inflammatory cascades. Both apoptosis and inflammation are now strongly implicated in contributing to the brain damage (loss of neurons) associated with acute neurodegenerative conditions such as stroke. These processes may also be involved in chronic neurodegenerative condition such as Alzheimer's Disease.
Through CoCensys' collaboration with Cytovia, CoCensys scientists have helped identify and characterize novel small-molecule drugs that potently and selectively inhibit caspase activity. Compounds which inhibit caspases have pronounced anti-apoptotic and anti-inflammatory activity. The key advance made by the research program was to design compounds that are not only potently active in a test tube but are also active when given to animals. In particular, one lead compound has demonstrated robust neuroprotective properties when administered systemically in animal models of ischemic stroke.
"Being awarded the Phase II grant is good news for the caspase program at CoCensys," said Richard Woodward, Senior Director of Discovery at CoCensys. "It helps us to continue funding a very fruitful and exciting collaboration with Cytovia in which the companies will attempt to identify development candidates," added Dr. Woodward.
"These grants are the result of an aggressive campaign to pursue funding for our research and discovery programs," said F. Richard Nichol, Ph.D., Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of CoCensys. "This is the third SBIR grant that we have been awarded this year, and we have additional applications pending. The stroke market is largely underserved, and this technology platform could deliver a novel therapeutic to treat stroke victims," added Dr. Nichol.
CoCensys is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers and develops products for the treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders. The Company's product development programs focus on novel small molecule compounds for the treatment of epilepsy, anxiety, Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases, neuropathic pain, migraine, insomnia and stroke. CoCensys has collaborations with the Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories Division of American Home Products Corporation to develop analogs of naturally-occurring neuroactive compounds, "epalons," for the treatment of anxiety, with Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Division of Warner-Lambert Company to identify and develop subtype-selective NMDA receptor antagonists for the treatment of a variety of neurological and psychiatric diseases, and with Senju Pharmaceuticals Ltd. for the exploration of ophthalmic indications for CoCensys' glutamate receptor antagonists. More information about the Company is available on its web site: cocensys.com.
This press release includes forward looking statements that involve a high degree of technological, regulatory and competitive risks and uncertainties inherent to early stage biopharmaceutical companies. Those forward looking statements include discussion of SBIR grant applications and the potential of CoCensys compounds in research and development. Actual results may differ due to a number of factors, including that we cannot assure you that our research, discovery, and development efforts will produce future results that will benefit CoCensys or its shareholders and we cannot assure you that we will be awarded future SBIR grants, as well as those factors that are more fully discussed in the Company's most recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Q.
SOURCE CoCensys, Inc.
/CONTACT: F. Richard Nichol, Ph.D., Chairman of the Board, President &
Chief Executive Officer, Donna D. Slade, Assistant Director, Investor
Relations/Public Relations, or Richard Woodward, Ph.D., Senior Director,
Discovery, all of CoCensys, Inc., 949-753-6110/
/Web site: cocensys.com
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