Polymedix And UMass receive Phase I STTR contract for research on drug-resistant bacteria treatments

PolyMedix, Inc. (OTC BB: PYMX, www.polymedix.com), an emerging biotechnology company developing acute care products for infectious diseases and acute cardiovascular disorders, and the University of Massachusetts, have received a Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contract in the amount of $100,000 to support research to identify lead antimicrobial compounds to effectively treat multi-drug resistant and biofilm-embedded bacteria.

The sponsoring agency for this contract is the U.S. Army Research Office. The primary goal of the work funded by this Phase I STTR contract will be to develop select, targeted new derivatives of PolyMedix’s small molecule defensin mimetic antimicrobial compounds and identify lead molecules active against bacterial pathogens and their drug/multi-drug resistant strains that are often associated with biofilm infections. PolyMedix will receive $100,000 during this Phase 1 contract, to be disbursed over six months, with $35,600 of this total amount to be provided by PolyMedix to the University of Massachusetts Amherst in support of work to be done by Dr. Gregory Tew under the contract.

This contract represents the eleventh outside supported funding, in the form of a grant or research contract, and the fourth related to biodefense, received by PolyMedix. On July 23, 2009 PolyMedix announced that the Company and the University of Massachusetts Amherst had received a research contract from the U.S. Office of Naval Research for up to $100,000 to develop novel antibacterial compounds against bacterial pathogens of military interest. On June 2, 2009 PolyMedix announced that it had received a $1.6 million contract from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) to develop new antibiotic compounds based on its proprietary defensin-mimetics to combat biowarfare pathogens. In September 2004 PolyMedix received a Phase I SBIR grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the amount of $167,000 to study its novel defensin-mimetic antibiotic compounds against anthrax and other biowarfare pathogens. The results of that work suggest that certain of PolyMedix’s antimicrobial compounds demonstrated antimicrobial activity in test-tube experiments against infectious agents that cause anthrax, plague, tularemia, and listeriosis.

PolyMedix’s lead defensin-mimetic antibiotic compound is PMX-30063, currently in Phase I clinical development. On December 10, 2008, PolyMedix announced the results of the first Phase I human clinical study with PMX-30063. The results of that study suggest that it should be possible to achieve clinically therapeutic levels with daily doses of PMX-30063 which are lower than those associated with any adverse effects seen in the single dose study. On June 5, 2009, PolyMedix announced that it had initiated dosing in a second Phase I clinical study with PMX-30063. This Phase IB clinical study will assess the safety of PMX-30063 given repeatedly over a period of several days. The initial indication planned for PMX-30063 is as a treatment for pan-Staphylococcal infections, including MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus).