The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Wednesday awarded $56.3 million for the development of five new drugs to treat injuries associated with acute radiation syndrome.
The contracts were awarded by HHS’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
Acute radiation syndrome is caused by exposure to high doses of damaging (ionizing) radiation. ARS includes injuries to multiple organs, hemorrhaging, infection and suppression of the immune system’s ability to fight organisms that cause infection.
Because no products are licensed to treat any aspect of acute radiation syndrome, BARDA is supporting the development of products to treat bone marrow, gastrointestinal, lung and skin injury caused by radiation. BARDA expects to expand this list to include products to treat the thermal burns that might be caused by a nuclear detonation.
The contracts were awarded to Neumedicines Inc. of Pasadena, Calif., RxBio Inc. of Johnson City, Tenn., the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences of Little Rock, Ark., Araim Pharmaceuticals of Ossining, N.Y., and Cellerant Therapeutics of San Carlos, Calif.
“These contracts support development of products that have the potential to address urgent public health requirements for radiation medical countermeasures while also meeting other unmet medical needs,” said BARDA Director Robin Robinson, Ph.D. “For example, they may find day-to-day use in treating the side effects of cancer radiation treatment and chemotherapy. These advanced development contracts demonstrate what can be achieved by repurposing drugs with commercial potential to meet public health emergency requirements, and we would like to encourage other pharmaceutical companies and their collaborators to follow this approach.”
In addition to these new contracts, BARDA today extended a 2010 contract with Cellerant Therapeutics for a second year and an additional $16.7 million of funding. Under the contract, Cellerant will continue studies and manufacturing activities to further develop a new way to treat the illness known as neutropenia, an abnormally low number of white blood cells caused by exposure to high levels of ionizing radiation. Cellerant’s drug, called CLT-008, uses myeloid progenitor cells, which can grow into any kind of blood cell the body needs.
CLT-008 is being developed to support and add to the patient’s own progenitor cells, providing protection for patients against life-threatening infections and hemorrhaging while their own bone marrow is recovering. CLT-008 could be used for other blood disorders and complications of cancer in which blood cells and platelets need to be replenished, so it also has promise as supportive therapy for patients receiving bone marrow or fetal cord blood transplants.