Oligomerix, Inc., Awarded $2.18 Million SBIR Grant for Tau Oligomer Inhibitor for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders

October 10, 2019 |

3 min read

Oligomerix, Inc., a privately held company pioneering the development of tau oligomer inhibitors for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related neurodegenerative disorders, announced today the receipt of a $2.18 million Direct-to-Phase-II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- OLIGOMERIX Inc., a privately held company pioneering the development of tau oligomer inhibitors for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related neurodegenerative disorders, announced today the receipt of a $2.18 million Direct-to-Phase-II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant. The two-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute on Aging (NIA), will fund GMP scale-up of the company’s lead compound in preparation for clinical development. This program entitled “GMP Synthesis of a Tau Oligomer Inhibitor to Enable Clinical Development for ADRD” complements the ongoing safety studies and therapeutic efficacy studies in animal models with tau pathology. The goal of this program is to develop a disease-modifying, small molecule drug for AD and AD related dementias (ADRD) with tau pathology.

“The SBIR grant program is incredibly competitive and continued NIH support validates our program’s approach and successful progress toward clinical studies. This award will also fund the formulation of our lead compound for clinical development,” said James Moe, Ph.D., MBA, President and CEO of Oligomerix. “This program is directed at AD for which there is no disease-modifying therapy. We are fortunate to be working with Albany Molecular Research Institute, Inc. (AMRI), who has a well-established record of successfully supporting NIH grant projects. We’ve partnered with AMRI, a leading global contract research, development and manufacturing organization, for the process development and optimization, as well as the GMP manufacturing of our toxicology and clinical stage API.”

There is a critical unmet need for disease-modifying drugs for AD and related dementias, and the role tau plays in the disease has become an important target for drug discovery and development. Oligomerix and other research labs have shown that tau oligomers are directly neurotoxic, inhibit signal transmission between neurons, and impair formation of memory in mice. Oligomerix’s core technology is focused on developing small molecule inhibitors of tau self-association, the initial step in the formation of pathological tau oligomers at the beginning of the tau aggregation cascade. Oligomerix’s lead compound has demonstrated efficacy in preclinical studies, and preclinical safety studies are in progress. A complementary mechanistic biomarker is being developed to facilitate clinical development.

About Oligomerix, Inc.

Oligomerix is an emerging biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing novel, small-molecule inhibitors of tau oligomer formation for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related neurodegenerative diseases with tau pathology. Oligomerix’s drug discovery platform has identified a pipeline of novel, small molecule lead compounds that are designed to inhibit tau oligomer formation at the beginning of the aggregation process, and the company has achieved proof-of-concept in an animal model best representing tau aggregation in AD. IND-enabling studies are in process for the company’s lead program targeting AD. The NYC-based company is located at the Ullmann Research Center for Health Sciences within the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and has received considerable support from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institute of Health (NIH). Oligomerix is seeking strategic partners to support the acceleration and advancement of these important programs. For more information about Oligomerix, please visit http://www.oligomerix.com.

DISCLAIMER Information reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R44AG066384. “The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.”