Germany’s BMBF awards NOXXON grant for developing Spiegelmer NOX-A12

NOXXON Pharma AG (NOXXON), clinical-stage developer of L-RNA based scaffolds (Spiegelmers®) that bind their targets conceptually similar to antibodies, announced today that the company was awarded a research grant from Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under the ministry’s small and medium enterprise innovation initiative (“KMU-Innovativ”). The grant was presented to NOXXON following the completion of a peer reviewed selection process. Under the initiative NOXXON will receive 1.2 million Euro (1.7 million US$) in funding for the impending phase I clinical development of its candidate Spiegelmer® NOX-A12. The company develops NOX-A12 for use in autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in patients suffering from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma or multiple myeloma.

NOXXON’s Chief Executive Officer Frank Morich commented: “In awarding this competitive research grant to NOXXON, the BMBF acknowledges our tremendous progress in maturing Spiegelmer® compounds into therapeutic candidates for human use. The transition from pre-clinical studies to clinical trials is a critical junction in the development of an innovative compound. We are grateful to the BMBF for providing grant support at this crucial stage.”

Spiegelmers® (L-aptamers) are chemical entities based on synthetic mirror-image oligonucleotides. Due to their unique mirror image configuration Spiegelmers® are not metabolized and do not hybridize with native nucleic acids. Spiegelmers® also do not activate the innate immune response via Toll-like receptors and have shown an exceptionally favorable immunogenicity profile in pre-clinical testing. The phase I clinical development of NOX-A12 will follow closely behind that of NOXXON’s lead candidate NOX-E36, which entered human testing in June of 2009.