Radnor biotechnology firm PolyMedix believes it may have an answer, and it’s going to get a chance to examine its theories more closely with the addition of a $4 million National Institutes of Health grant, announced last week. The grant rewards the up-and-coming, suburban Philadelphia firm with $500K for the initial phase and, upon completion of certain deliverables, will have more funds to work with.
Current therapies for malaria are plagued by increasingly rapid drug resistance, said PolyMedix Vice President of Research Richard Scott, which has become endemic in certain regions of the world.
PolyMedix has designed medication that imitates natural human defenses to fool Malaria bacteria and protect billions of victims. After presenting their findings in 2008, pre-clinical studies showed promising results against the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, the infectious agent for the most prevalent and deadly forms of malaria. P. falciparum accounts for 80 percent of all human malarial infections and 90 percent of deaths from such infections.
Our compounds mimic human host-defense proteins and have a mechanism of action distinct from those of current anti-malarial drugs, says Scott, a mechanism which is intended to make bacterial resistance unlikely to develop.
With the NIH grants first phase set to begin, PolyMedix will be out to prove this concept beyond a shadow of a doubt so they can secure future funding and perhaps beat the disease once and for all.
Source: Richard Scott, Polymedix
Writer: John Steele