DiscoveryBioMed awarded NIH SBIR Phase 1 grant to discover and develop anti-inflammatory phytochemicals

DiscoveryBioMed, Inc. (DBM) today announced that it has been awarded a $200,000 Small Business Innovations Research (SBIR) Phase 1 grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue research into the discovery and development of anti-inflammatory phytochemicals to address complications associated with nasal and pulmonary inflammation, dermatitis, and kidney disorders with an inflammatory component. DiscoveryBioMed, Inc. (DBM) will be working with ChromaDex Corp. (OTCBB: CDXC), who will be providing a library of natural products and phytochemicals to screen in their human cell platform.

“ChromaDex offers one of the most unique and well characterized phytochemical libraries. It is valuable to have our library being screened on innovative human cell-based platforms for this and other programs on-going at DBM.”

"We are proud to have been awarded this grant and to have our technology again recognized and validated by the NIH," said Dr. Erik Schwiebert, Chief Executive Officer of DiscoveryBioMed. "This program is empowered by multiple human cell platforms derived from different tissues commonly afflicted by inflammatory conditions and by access to botanically-derived small molecule phytochemicals and/or extracts from our newly cemented partnership with ChromaDex."

DBM designs targeted and phenotypic high-throughput molecular screening programs where the human cell platform accelerates drug discovery. DBM has designed this program to discover broad spectrum anti-inflammatory phytochemicals. "Other proprietary methods build biostatistical power into the program, further accelerating, streamlining and rationalizing the program," Dr. Schwiebert explained.

"We are pleased that DBM chose ChromaDex as a partner for this project," said Frank Jaksch, CEO and Founder of ChromaDex. "ChromaDex offers one of the most unique and well characterized phytochemical libraries. It is valuable to have our library being screened on innovative human cell-based platforms for this and other programs on-going at DBM."

DBM and ChromaDex are fortunate and grateful to have their work supported in part by the Recovery Act. In a climate where early discovery is contracting at an alarming rate, both companies are bringing value to the table. The federal funding (primarily from the National Center of Complementary and Alternative Medicine and supported secondarily by the NIH Director's Office and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences) is a needed catalyst to launch this program, that will maintain existing jobs, generate new jobs, and lead to a deepening of the program with additional funding and revenues at a later date.