Synergy Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTC BB: SGYP), a developer of new drugs to treat gastrointestinal disorders (GI) and diseases, announced today that it has been awarded a $244,479 grant under the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project (QTDP) program to aid the Company in its development of plecanatide currently in clinical development to treat gastrointestinal disorders. The QTDP program was created under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 to provide tax credits or grants for eligible therapeutic discovery projects during tax years 2009 and 2010. To receive this award, Synergy needed to show reasonable potential to treat areas of unmet medical need or produce a new therapy to prevent, detect or treat chronic or acute diseases and conditions; reduce long-term health costs in the US; or significantly advance the goal of curing cancer within a 30-year period.
Synergy's proprietary drug candidate plecanatide has just completed a Phase IIa clinical trial in patients to treat chronic constipation (CC). The Company plans to initiate a Phase IIb 28-day repeated-oral-dose, placebo-controlled clinical trial of plecanatide in CC patients in the first quarter of 2011.
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