Promising New TB Drug Receives Phase 2 SBIR

Sequella, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on commercializing products to treat infectious diseases of epidemic potential, has announced that it received a $2.3 million, three-year Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH),

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for the development of SQ641, a promising new tuberculosis (TB) drug with potential to provide early and prolonged bacterial clearance during the intensive phase of TB treatment.

The Phase 2 SBIR grant will fund the conduct of several IND-related critical path studies, including delivery optimization in vivo.

Dr. Carol Nacy, CEO of Sequella said, "The NIH is a model example of how strong public/private partnerships help advance new infectious disease therapies into the drug pipeline and we thank them for this grant support. SQ641 is a potentially powerful antitubercular compound with a unique target of action. The SBIR grant award is scientific validation of our research and development efforts to identify important new drugs for diseases of concern to the global health community."

Results of the completed Phase 1 SBIR grant demonstrated that SQ641 has superior in vitro activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis compared to all other TB drugs. It has a unique mechanism of action and a unique target, the translocase 1 (TL-1) enzyme, which is not the target of any existing antitubercular. In addition, SQ641 possesses exceptional activity against all members of the Mycobacteria family of bacteria, including M. tuberculosis, M. avium complex, and other pathogenic nontubercular Mycobacteria.

About SQ641

SQ641 is the lead drug candidate from a 7000-compound library of semi-synthetic TL-1 inhibitors developed as potential treatments for TB or bacterial pneumonia (Streptococcus pneumoniae). The compound inhibits TL-1, an enzyme required for cell wall synthesis in all bacteria, including Mycobacteria. Sequella licensed the compound library from Daiichi-Sankyo (November 2004). Daiichi-Sankyo identified the compound class and performed extensive research and preliminary preclinical development on several drug leads. Sequella has exclusive rights to the series of TL-1 inhibitors for the treatment of TB and all other indications for nearly every worldwide market.