East Providence-based ProThera Biologics, a company that works to develop proteins for the therapeutic treatment of life-threatening inflammatory conditions, has received a $2.03 million Small Business Innovation Research Fast Track grant from the National Institutes of Health.
The funds will go towards the company's study of a new prognosis assessment test. This test would determine which infants "who have, or might develop, sepsis and necrotizing enterocolitis," and a result, which infants would require a specific treatment.
Such studies are an extension of the company's main work, developing inter-alpha inhibitor proteins that treat acute inflammatory diseases, such as severe community-acquired pneumonia. There are currently "no effective treatments available," a release on the funding states.
"Research at ProThera has shown that these proteins play an essential role in human health by controlling inflammation," the release continues. "They exert their anti-inflammatory effects through multiple mechanisms and have the potential to shift the paradigm of drug discovery, which has traditionally focused on 'one drug to inhibit one pathway.' To date, no drugs have been able to control severe inflammation. ProThera’s IAIP holds great potential to modulate severe inflammation because it attenuates multiple pathways."
In January, the 2001-born company used $166,522 of the NIH funding (coupled with an additional $45,000 from the Rhode Island Science and Technology Advisory Council's Innovate Rhode Island Fund) to complete a pilot phase feasibility study for its new test. This new financing was a result of a successful first phase of this study, rounding out the NIH's financial involvement at the aforementioned $2.03 million.
Thought leaders argue that the work ProThera is doing is paramount for moving treatment forward.
“Detecting life-threatening, acute diseases at an early stage is a critical need for neonatal patients,” said Dr. James Padbury, pediatrician-in-chief and chief of Neonatal/Perinatal Medicine at Women and Infants Hospital. “So far, extremely promising results have been obtained with IAIP as a biomarker, and we look forward to further collaborating with ProThera.”
Padbury will join a team of "key neonatologists" that will work with ProThera as it continues its work: the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine's Dr. Hala Chaaban and Dr. Birju Shah.
“Our first goal in working with our collaborators is to demonstrate the value of the IAIP rapid test in predicting outcomes of infants with sepsis or NEC and then to test the device in clinical studies," said Denice Spero, president and chief business officer of ProThera Biologics. "IAIP have the advantage of being both a biomarker and a therapeutic. The biomarker aspects support the clinical development of the therapeutic.”
The announcement of these funds doesn't mark the first financial-focused headline for the company; ProThera raised $750,000 in 2012.
