Date: Jun 17, 2014 Source: bizjournals (
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Selecta Biosciences has receiveda $8.1 million grant from a division of the National Institutes of Health to continue development of a nicotine vaccine to help smokers quit.
The Watertown biotech firm, which is developing nanoparticles that modulate the immune system, announced today the award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, an institute at NIH. The award follows a $3 million award in 2010 from the same agency which paid for early research and an initial trial in 80 humans which found the drug to be safe. The additional money will go toward mid-stage clinical studies of the drug, called SEL-068.
The announcement was one of several from the company this morning. The 6-year-old firm also announced a $1.25 million grant from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for malaria vaccines, and an exclusive license with Chinese biotech, 3SBio, for a drug called pegsiticase which has shown effectiveness in reducing plasma uric acid levels in gout patients in Phase 1 clinical studies. The license will allow Selecta to use its proprietary Synthetic Vaccine Particle platform to the pegsiticase in patients with refractory and tophaceous gout to make it more efficient and safer.
The resulting combination drug, SEL-212 would be the first non-immunogenic version of a type of drug called uricase. According to Selecta, there are now two versions of uricase approved in the U.S., both of which spur the creation of anti-drug antibodies in more than half the patients who take them, reducing the effectiveness and causing a severe allergic reaction.
