Noxopharm Ltd (ASX:NOX) has lauded the award of a $1.5 million grant to the Hudson Institute of Medical Research – the company’s strategic partner – from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Ideas Grant Scheme.
The NHMRC scheme is highly competitive, with only about 10% of applicant receiving funding, and in 2021 the mean value awarded was just $965,000.
The four-year grant will support research into novel treatments for autoimmune disease, which affect over 1 million Australians – treatment options remain limited, and often have major side effects.
Grant key to SofraTM technology platform
“We have a very productive relationship with the Hudson Institute team and are delighted to see them receive this grant,” Noxopharm CEO Dr Gisela Mautner said.
“It will support innovation in an area of medical research that is attracting more interest than ever before, and the drugs we are looking to develop in this space would be something genuinely new in this sector.
“This research is key to our proprietary SofraTM technology platform, which is a fundamental component of the preclinical pipeline we are building as part of our multiplatform strategy.”
Noxopharm subsidiary Pharmorage has been developing the Sofra platform in partnership with a team of Australian researchers led by Associate Professor Michael Gantier of the Hudson Institute, including Dr Julia Ellyard and Professor Ben Corry from Australian National University (ANU).
New class of RNA therapeutics
The strategic partners are collaboratively developing a new class of RNA therapeutics which selectively inhibit a protein known as TLR7 which is overactivated in autoimmune diseases like lupus.
In addition to this latest grant, the team previously received two others to support their research:
- $1.45 million from the Victorian Government for research into novel drug compounds that dampen harmful excessive inflammation associated with COVID-19; and
- a matched $100,000 Victorian mRNA Acceleration Fund grant obtained to develop RNA-based therapeutics to manage TLR7-driven autoimmune diseases.
“We are delighted to see recognition of our pioneering work on TLR7 rewarded by this NHMRC funding,” Hudson Institute Associate Professor Michael Gantier said.
“In addition to supporting the development of an entirely new class of TLR7 inhibitors, this work will help broaden our basic understanding of the role of TLR7 in the progression of autoimmunity.
“If our hypothesis is correct, therapies targeting TLR7 could be designed to halt progression of a wide range of diseases otherwise fuelled by auto-antibodies.”