Raleigh-based Helixomer, a pre-clinical, drug-development company created at North Carolina State University, has won a $2 million federal grant to advance a pair of novel drugs to regulate bleeding and clotting in patients.

The Direct-to-Phase-2 SBIR grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will allow Helixomer to generate data demonstrating the efficacy and safety of an anticoagulant and a complementary reversal agent. The two intravenous products are intended to compete in the $10 billion global market for heparin, the leading anticoagulant.

“We are appreciative of and excited about this NIH award and ongoing support,” said Thom LaBean, Ph.D., co-founding chief executive officer of Helixomer. “This grant will enable us to advance further and de-risk our preclinical development program for this pair of drugs.”

The NIH funding follows substantial support from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, which provided a Flash Grant and a Translational Research Grant totaling $132,949 and then two Small Business Research Loans totaling $350,000.

“We’re excited to see one of our grant awardees, Dr. Thom LaBean, advance this technology,” said Tracey du Laney, Ph.D., senior director of science and technology development at NCBiotech. The succession of NCBiotech grants and loans helped Helixomer meet milestones and benchmarks that led to the NIH grant, “presenting a pathway toward commercialization that the LaBean team has successfully navigated up to this point,” she added.

Helixomer has also received support from North Carolina State University’s Chancellor's Innovation Fund, which provides seed funding for university research projects that have commercial potential.

Read the full article: https://www.ncbiotech.org/news/helixomer-awarded-2m-nih-grant-anticoagulant-development