ViroLogic Inc has been awarded three Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a division of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, for more than $3 million over three years. The grants will support the development of analytical and database tools to facilitate the identification and characterization of drug resistant strains of HIV, and assays that will aid in the pre-clinical and clinical evaluation of the next generation of anti-viral therapeutics.
"These grants validate our leadership in HIV drug resistance and provide a non-dilutive means to fund the Company's research and development efforts," said Bill Young, ViroLogic's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "We will use the funds to create new technology designed to aid in the development of novel antiretroviral drugs that target specific steps in the life cycle of HIV and other viruses."
The largest of the awards, a three-year phase II grant in excess of $2 million will support further development of two HIV entry assay technologies. This is a continuation of a two-year phase I grant originally awarded to ViroLogic in May 2001 to develop a phenotypic assay that measures susceptibility of HIV-1 to entry inhibitors and a genotypic assay that detects mutations in the HIV-1 envelope gene that cause drug resistance. The additional phase II funds will be used to optimize, scale, automate and validate assay protocols developed during the initial portion of the grant in order to meet the anticipated demand and achieve regulatory (CLIA/CAP) certification for HIV entry phenotypic and genotypic assays.
Two additional SBIR phase I grants will support new assay and database development efforts. Christos J. Petropoulos, Vice President, Research and Development, will direct the effort to develop assays for the pre-clinical and clinical evaluation of integrase and RNase H inhibitors, which like the approved protease and reverse transcriptase inhibitors, target viral enzymatic activities that are essential to HIV-1 replication.