Angelica Therapeutics Inc., a privately held drug development company focused on the development and commercialization of therapeutics incorporating novel non-immunogenic fusion toxins, announced that it has received a $244,479 grant under the IRS Qualified Therapeutic Discovery Project Program (QTDPP). The grant is to advance the development of Angelica's lead drug candidate, Angeloxin, a fusion toxin consisting of de-immunized Diphtheria Toxin (DT) fused to Interleukin-2 (IL2).

The Qualified Therapeutic Discovery Project Program was part of the healthcare reform legislation enacted in March of this year and established a one-time pool of $1 billion for grants to small biotech companies developing novel therapeutics which show potential to, among other things, result in new therapies that either treat areas of unmet medical need, or prevent, detect, or treat chronic or acute diseases and conditions or significantly advance the goal of curing cancer.

Angelica has collaborated with Antitope Ltd. (Cambridge, UK) to remove the T cell epitopes from Diphtheria Toxin while retaining its cytotoxic potency. Angeloxin, currently in preclinical development, is the most advanced drug candidate derived from Angelica's technology platform. It promises to be an advance over Ontak, currently marketed for the treatment of cutaneous T cell lymphoma and with reports of efficacy in other cancers as well, including peripheral T cell lymphoma and melanoma.

Geoff Davis, CEO of Angelica, said, “We are very pleased to see Angeloxin and the underlying technology platform recognized by this award. We anticipate that our technology will constitute a significant advance in enabling repeated administration of highly potent and targeted drugs, even to immuno-competent patients, primarily for the treatment of cancer.”

Angelica is a privately held biotechnology company focused on the development of “best in class” fusion toxins as therapeutics. Angelica was founded in 2006 and has been funded solely by the founders and private investors.